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The prototype of a revolutionary new type of vehicle only one metre wide specially designed for cities has been developed by a team of European scientists. The vehicle combines the safety of a micro-car and the manoeuvrability of a motorbike, while being more fuel-efficient and less polluting than other vehicles.
The CLEVER (Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport) vehicle is a £1.5 million collaborative project which has involved nine European partners from industry and research, including the University of Bath
The three-year international project has produced a tilting three-wheeled vehicle that is fully enclosed and has seats for the driver and a passenger. Its strengthened frame protects the driver in a crash and the vehicle has a top speed of approximately 60 mph (about 100 kph) and an acceleration of 0-40 mph (60 kph) in seven seconds.
At just over three feet (1 metre) wide, it is 20 inches (0.5 metres) narrower than a micro-car, and three feet narrower than a medium sized conventional car. This reduced width means more efficient parking bays, and the possibility of narrower lanes for such vehicles.
The vehicle is different from previous attempts to create a small urban vehicle in that it is fully enclosed in a metal framework, is stylishly designed and is much safer. Its roof is as high as conventional cars, and it carries one passenger, who sits behind the driver.
German, French, British and Austrian organisations, including BMW, began work on the project in December 2002 completed it in March this year. It is funded by the European Union.
Matt Barker and Ben Drew, research officers at the University of Bath’s Centre for Power Transmission and Motion Control, developed a novel tilting chassis concept to keep the vehicle stable in corners. The vehicle controls the amount of tilt automatically, unlike on a motorcycle where the rider controls how far to tilt the vehicle.
The hydraulic active tilt system is electronically controlled to keep the vehicle balanced at all speeds while maintaining car-like steering throughout. The vehicle has an aluminium frame and plastic body work.
The work at Bath focused on the design and simulation of the vehicle chassis and control of the hydraulic tilting system. Cooper-Avon Tyres Ltd worked with the University of Bath to achieve these goals.
Running on compressed natural gas, the vehicle would not only help preserve stocks of oil but would emit about a third of the carbon dioxide than conventional family cars. Because it does not run on petrol or diesel, it would not be liable for the congestion charge in London, or any other city where the charge is likely to be adopted. Its fuel consumption is equivalent to 108 miles per gallon (or 2.6 litres per 100 kms) with petrol, a third of most cars.
"The CLEVER vehicle is a tremendous leap forward in the development of vehicles for the 21st century," said Dr Jos Darling, senior lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath, who is in charge of its part of the project, with Dr Geraint Owen.
"Making our vehicles smaller is a good solution to the relentless increase in traffic in our towns and cities. The advent of micro cars was a first step, but with its manoeuvrability and narrowness, the CLEVER vehicle is the ultimate in the search for a small vehicle to get around cities like Bath and London.
"The fact that it has a stylish design, can carry a passenger, is not open to the weather and is as high as a conventional car, will mean it will be much more popular with motorists than previous novel city vehicles.
"It costs less to run, is quieter and is less polluting, and this will make it popular with environmentalists. Its strengthened safety frame makes it very safe for the driver in accidents.
"We think the CLEVER vehicle is the way forward in city motoring and are proud that the University of Bath is at the heart of a European project to bring it about."
Source: University of Bath
Explore further: Cleaning water one stroke at a time | <urn:uuid:e0b7c05a-4a81-44b5-92ca-74447eafd4e2> | CC-MAIN-2015-48 | http://phys.org/news/2006-04-prototype-one-metre-wide-eco-friendly-car.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-48/segments/1448398450559.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20151124205410-00080-ip-10-71-132-137.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964979 | 828 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Google has uncovered it’s integrating new profound learning intelligence with Street View to make it simpler to automate the way toward mapping new addresses for Google Maps.
Anybody living in a town or significant metropolis might have seen Google’s Street View autos, loaded with 360-degree camera, navigating lanes in the course of recent years to catch everything from shop veneers and landmarks to parks, and back roads. While the camera gathers imagery of the genuine world to supplement Google Maps, it is also feasible to separate extra data from the photo, including road numbers and names, to enhance the information accessible in Google Maps.
In any case, various components, for example, lighting, edges, bends, or jumbled foundations, can make it hard for a machine to appropriately distinguish names and numbers.
Throughout the years, Google has experimented with various techniques to enhance information caught from Street View imagery, including ReCAPTCHA, which engage human crowdsourcing to recognize the content of a picture.
Recently, Google got into deep neural systems to automate the procedure of reading the content, present on the images. From the recent accomplishments, its latest algorithm presented 84.2 % of accuracy while testing on French Street Name Signs (FSNS) dataset, as per the blog. The post includes that it is “fundamentally beating the past cutting edge frameworks.” Google has made the model freely accessible on GitHub through Tensorflow—an open-source machine learning programming library created by Google.
Google uses neural system for its Street view to highlight the vehicle license plates. The company is using the similar technique to fetch informative data such as road numbers and street names. Google also claims that the same system has helped to enhance the location data of addresses globally by one-third ratio. But, addresses don’t simply comprise of numbers, which is the reason as to why Google has been attempting to extend the framework to incorporate road names as well. The system can also supplant the short forms with full names such as “Nevada” instead of “NV” and overlook any immaterial content inside the captured image.
This automated system improves the capability of the Google Maps to plot new streets and include buildings or other facilities that might be missing from the specific city’s official maps. | <urn:uuid:ff7998fc-a8d7-4858-bd2b-5568b8f13730> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | https://www.technologynewsextra.com/street-numbers-names-enterprises-will-keep-maps-updated-google-street-view/17900/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575541301014.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20191215015215-20191215043215-00320.warc.gz | en | 0.932791 | 468 | 2.75 | 3 |
Less than a decade ago, it would be hard to imagine that mobile devices would become as sophisticated as they are today, let alone that they would be as prevalent among youngsters as they are today. In fact, a recent study from Common Sense Media, a family research group, found that roughly 38 percent of all toddlers have had experience using a tablet, smart phone or other mobile device, many before they can even form full sentences.
These products are used by kids to play games, watch videos and pretty much partake in any other kind of multimedia that mobile devices allow adults to do. While this figure represents research from 2012, just a year earlier, the same demographic who had already used a smartphone or tablet was only 10 percent.
“We’re seeing a fundamental change in the way kids consume media,” Common Sense Media CEO and founder Jim Steyer told Mashable. “Kids that can’t even talk will walk up to a TV screen and try to swipe it like an iPad or an iPhone.”
While there are many pros and cons to this development, one troubling aspect of this activity is the fact that the personal identification information that is stored on these devices can easily get exposed if a child who isn’t aware of the dangers of identity theft misuses your mobile.
If you have kids and allow them to use your mobile devices, make sure that you educate them on the dangers of ID theft as they grow up so you or them don’t become victims. If you have a credit monitoring service on your side as well, you can be alerted to certain activity that could be a sign of identity theft should your information get compromised. | <urn:uuid:50b6ccda-c791-40af-b6eb-c2dea8832d3c> | CC-MAIN-2016-22 | http://www.identityguard.com/identity-theft-resources/articles/study-shows-more-toddlers-are-using-mobile-devices-than-ever-before/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-22/segments/1464049281978.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160524002121-00079-ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97213 | 341 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Huckleberry Finn dressing as a girl is a famously comic scene in Mark Twain’s novel but hardly out of character—for the author, that is. Twain “troubled gender” in much of his otherwise traditional fiction, depicting children whose sexual identities are switched at birth, tomboys, same-sex married couples, and even a male French painter who impersonates his own fictive sister and becomes engaged to another man.
This book explores Mark Twain’s extensive use of cross-dressing across his career by exposing the substantial cast of characters who masqueraded as members of the opposite sex or who otherwise defied gender expectations. Linda Morris grounds her study in an understanding of the era’s theatrical cross-dressing and changing mores and even events in the Clemens household. She examines and interprets Twain’s exploration of characters who transgress gendered conventions while tracing the degree to which themes of gender disruption interact with other themes, such as his critique of race, his concern with death in his classic “boys’ books,” and his career-long preoccupation with twins and twinning.
Approaching familiar texts in surprising new ways, Morris reexamines the relationship between Huck and Jim; discusses racial and gender crossing in Pudd’nhead Wilson; and sheds new light on Twain’s difficulty in depicting the most famous cross-dresser in history, Joan of Arc. She also considers a number of his later “transvestite tales” that feature transgressive figures such as Hellfire Hotchkiss, who is hampered by her “misplaced sex.”
Morris challenges views of Twain that see his work as reinforcing traditional notions of gender along sharply divided lines. She shows that Twain depicts cross-dressing sometimes as comic or absurd, other times as darkly tragic—but that even at his most playful, he contests traditional Victorian notions about the fixity of gender roles.
Analyzing such characteristics of Twain’s fiction as his fascination with details of clothing and the ever-present element of play, Morris shows us his understanding that gender, like race, is a social construction—and above all a performance. Gender Play in Mark Twain: Cross-Dressing and Transgression broadens our understanding of the writer as it lends rich insight into his works. | <urn:uuid:20f2be11-44fc-411e-bf00-97e73feea608> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | https://upress.missouri.edu/9780826219633/gender-play-in-mark-twain/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891807660.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20180217185905-20180217205905-00028.warc.gz | en | 0.970906 | 481 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Helping your child to get a good night's sleep
We all want our child’s bedroom to a place that they can enjoy being, with stimulating toys and nice furniture. But if your child is experiencing difficulties sleeping, it is often useful to look at whether as well as a great place to spend play time, it is also an environment that helps them to prepare for sleep. In doing this there are some key questions.
To understand why a bedroom needs to be dark, we need to understand that human beings have evolved as diurnal creatures, which means that we are naturally programmed to be outdoors during daylight hours and at home in the dark, asleep, at night. When our brain senses that darkness is falling, it begins to convert the brain chemical and natural stimulant serotonin into the sleep hormone melatonin which signals to us that it is time to sleep. If a child’s bedroom is too light it can delay this production of melatonin – making it harder for them to settle. The ideal, therefore, is for a child to get used to, from an early age, having a bedroom that is completely dark. In many cases, however, a child wants the comfort of a nightlight – but this should be as small and dim as possible so as not to keep their brain in daytime mode. Blackout curtain-linings can also be very useful in the summer months and extend the whole family’s night by a few precious hours!
Of course not every bedroom can be silent – and indeed, the gentle noises of other family members moving around the house, the background hum of the washing machine or of distant traffic can be comforting to a child dropping off to sleep. Families where babies learn to settle in an environment where normal quiet, household noise continues when baby is put to bed find that find that this becomes a useful pattern for their sleeping habits later on. But too much noise – especially noise associated with daytime stimulation such as loud television/ music or sudden disturbing banging of doors can make it hard for a child to settle and be disruptive to their sleep. Sometimes, if they have a pet in their bedroom – especially a hamster with a wheel, their nocturnal activities can contribute greatly to a child’s wakefulness. Small modifications in this area can often have big pay-offs.
We have almost all experienced – often on holiday but occasionally in this country – the heat keeping us awake and indeed, the temperature of a bedroom greatly affects the quality of our sleep. Most people find that they sleep best in a slightly cooler room with a window slightly open for fresh air; but this has to be balanced against any noise from outside. It is also important that the room is not too cold and that bedding is adequate for the time of year. Climbing into a bed that is made – rather than one left over from the morning rush – can also send a powerful signal as part of a bedtime routine that this is a place prepared for sleep.
When an adult goes to the doctor with difficulties sleeping, the doctor will often talk to them about something called ‘sleep hygiene’ – their habits around sleeping. They would often be advised, for example, to ensure that the bedroom is a place reserved solely for sleeping so that the brain begins to build the pattern that when it goes bed that is what it is expected to do. Now, obviously, children’s bedrooms often serve the function of a playroom too and so to remove all other stimuli from them would be completely impractical. But parents do often find it helpful if they and their child get into the habit of ‘packing away the day’ as part of the bedtime routine. By putting games away in cupboards and turning the lights down low for a story the environment signals that something different and more restful is now expected. | <urn:uuid:681dfe68-0f7a-457c-bbcc-a1d2f76617fc> | CC-MAIN-2015-06 | http://kids-sleep-matters.com/environment.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422115869404.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124161109-00198-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972491 | 776 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Voices From Our AmericaProject Areas
This segment of VFOA works to capture the beautiful and ugly experiences of modern-day Panamanian West Indians in their own words, and guides interested individuals and groups in using that material to expand awareness of these histories and stories in Panama and in the U.S.
This segment of VFOA works to compile scholarly and popular views of Black women’s mobility through interviews with, and educational workshops on, African-American and Caribbean women expatriates, migrants, and tourists.
In every community, particularly communities without access to sanctioned or official methods of preservation, an individual or individuals will rise to become their community’s preserver and historian, filling the gap of knowledge left by societal neglect or erasure.
The Wisdom of the Elders (WOE) began in 2012. The fundamental goal of the undertaking was to determine whether and how autobiography production can enhance and provide valuable data about African American seniors’ mental health, past and present.
This segment of VFOA works to collect, digitize, and celebrate the voices of the women who were active in The Institute of the Black World, a Black independent activist think tank active for a decade in the 1970s.
Black Women’s Economies in Salvador Bahia, Brazil seeks to collect, compile, and disseminate narratives of Bahia’s black women’s lives to provide insight into the significance of this community that challenges many of the hegemonic notions of gender, race, religion, and national identity that have dominated Brazilian history. | <urn:uuid:e51a8dd4-ff1c-47dd-9871-2d60874683ea> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | https://voicesamerica.org/project-areas/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780058450.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20210927120736-20210927150736-00409.warc.gz | en | 0.93131 | 321 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Students enrolled in general Biology programs might be awarded Bachelor of Science (B.S.) or Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degrees. A bachelor’s degree in Biology is usually used as a stepping stone to advanced education. Schools offer these programs more commonly than programs in specialized areas of concentration, such as biochemistry and immunology. Given the expansive nature of the subject, students obtain an all-round education covering the biology of microorganisms, plants, humans and animals living in a variety of environments. Specializations are offered through some general biology programs; these include cell biology and evolutionary biology. Students are imparted wide-ranging knowledge that allows them to discover a sub-discipline that interests them, for continued education through a graduate degree.
These programs impart generalized biology-based education to provide students with a solid basis in science. Coursework covers a range of subject areas such as zoology and organic chemistry. Coursework may include topic areas such as:
•Vertebrates and invertebrates
•Terrestrial and aquatic ecology
•Biology of public health
•Human anatomy and physiology
Continuing Education Choices
While recruiters for some positions, such as teaching, management, applied research and product development, accept candidates with bachelor’s degrees, recruiters for most occupations involving independent research prefer Ph.D. degree graduates (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Schools offer Ph.D. programs in Immunology that can train students to pursue medical scientist positions involved specifically in developing immunotherapy treatments. Schools also offer joint MD/Ph.D. programs related to biological therapy, and the best job opportunities often go to those who hold both degrees (BLS).
These programs cover relevant topic areas such as immunotherapeutics, immunobiology, lymphocytes, infections and inflammation, and cancer immunology. A vital component of these programs is hands-on training in laboratories; this allows students to focus on research in the area of their interest, such as biological therapy. Individuals occupied in postdoctoral positions can continue their initiatives related to immunotherapy development.
Job and Wage Outlook
A faster-than-average job growth rate of 40% has been projected for medical scientists during the decade from 2008 to 2018. This is considered likely to be driven by new scientific discoveries, such as the study of genes through advanced techniques, and the continual growth of the biotechnology industry. In May 2012, medical scientists earned an average annual wage of $76,980.
Experience can help medical scientists to advance to lead researcher positions, and guide teams of technicians and scientists. Administrative and managerial positions within the scientific work field may also be available to some individuals. Other individuals can aim at consultant roles in several businesses and government. Apart from a Ph.D., individuals who seek permanent research positions are expected to boast an established record of research publications. | <urn:uuid:c3bec2f1-e60e-4117-8f7c-c0f22d313c07> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | http://educationcareerarticles.com/education-articles/majors-overview/degree-overview-bachelor-science-b-s-degree-biology/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084886895.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20180117102533-20180117122533-00703.warc.gz | en | 0.949276 | 582 | 2.96875 | 3 |
If your dog is scratching at his ears obsessively, the culprit of his itchiness may be a nasty arachnid parasite called otodecte cynotis, commonly referred to as the ear mite. Ear mites thrive inside the ears of dogs and cats, feeding off of the wax, oils and tissue debris within the ear canal. Ignoring your dog’s itch can result in a secondary bacterial infection, and mites on dogs can also lead to skin infections. Fortunately, ear mites in dogs are easy to eliminate.
Dog Ear Mites: A Common Problem
Although ear mites in dogs are less common than in cats, the problem is still prevalent. This is because ear mites are highly contagious, transmitted through casual contact with dogs and cats that harbor them. In homes where dogs cohabitate with cats that venture outdoors, the cats bring home ear mites and inadvertently share them with their canine housemates. Dogs that play in dog parks can come into contact with mites on dogs. Puppies and dogs that are obtained from pet shops, shelters and other facilities where there is a high turnover volume of animals are often diagnosed with dog ear mites during their initial veterinary examinations. The good news for pet owners is that dog ear mites generally do not invade human ears.
Symptoms and Complications of Ear Mites in Dogs
Mites on dogs will make their presence known with a number of noticeable symptoms :
- Excessive scratching and pawing at one or both ears
- Rubbing the ears on the carpet or other surfaces
- Shaking the head and flipping the ears
- An ear that may not appear positioned as usual
- Inflammation and redness of one of both ears
- Strong, foul odor that comes from one or both ears
- Evidence of blackish-brown debris that looks like coffee grinds
Ear mites make a dog extremely itchy and miserable. Imagine the sensation of having an infestation of eight-legged bugs constantly crawling around inside your ears. In your dog’s desperate attempts to relieve his itching, he can inflict further trauma to himself. Scratches on his outer ear and head can become infected, and violent shaking of his ears can result in broken blood vessels that turn the pinna of his ear into a fluid-filled pocket. This condition is called an aural hematoma. As the waxy buildup accumulates and blocks the ear canal, his ears become highly susceptible to bacterial infections. If an ear infection remains untreated, damage to the eardrum will be sustained.
Diagnosing Dog Ear Mites
Ear mites are nearly invisible to the naked eye. If you observe any of the aforementioned signs and symptoms in your dog, bring him to a veterinarian so that he can evaluate the problem and begin a simple treatment that will provide your dog with the swift relief that he desperately needs. Your veterinarian will inspect your dog’s ear canals and take a swab of the debris seen. This debris can be smeared on a slide to be viewed under a microscope to detect the presence of mites. Alternately, if your veterinarian has a digital otoscope, he can insert the scope into your dog’s ear canals and take in a significantly magnified view on a monitor screen. The ear mites will appear as white bugs, actively crawling along the walls of the ear canal.
Treatment of Ear Mites in Dogs
Once your veterinarian confirms a diagnosis of ear mites, he will prescribe drops to apply in your dog’s ear. Some ear mite treatment products only require one application in order to kill all adult mites and the eggs. Other products that only kill adult mites must be applied twice. The lifespan of mites on dogs is three weeks. The first round of treatment is applied over the first few days to kill all of the adult mites. Treatment is then halted for the following few days so that the eggs have a chance to hatch. Treatment is subsequently repeated to kill the new mites. Your veterinarian will likely want to inspect your dog’s ears after the treatments have been completed to confirm that all mites have been eliminated.
If your dog has developed a secondary ear infection, additional treatment will be implemented. Your veterinarian will likely recommend that you clean your dog’s ears with an ear cleaning solution in order to remove the accumulated wax and debris, and he will prescribe an otic antibiotic to combat the infection. If other dogs or cats reside in the household, you should assume that they also have ear mites. All dogs and cats must be treated for ear mites simultaneously to prevent reinfection between pets, and all bedding should be washed thoroughly or replaced.
Consider pet insurance through PetPremium to be able to reimburse a big part of the costs of veterinarian visits. We offer 4 different level plans with flexible preventive options, fast claim payments, and many more great options! | <urn:uuid:2b75f888-367c-4ca4-8746-626054c45479> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://www.petpremium.com/pet-care/articles/ear-mites-in-dogs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439735916.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20200805065524-20200805095524-00493.warc.gz | en | 0.9508 | 1,009 | 3.046875 | 3 |
2008 MIT Energy Conference: The Path from Conventional Hydrothermal to Nationwide Engineered Geothermal Systems
While US geothermal electric capacity stands at only 2544 MWe, there are over 2500 MWe of conventional geothermal projects currently being developed in the United States, and that number could more than double by 2015. Despite this growth, conventional geothermal energy is limited in its ability to scale due to its dependence on the presence of a natural hydrothermal resource to exploit. Engineered Geothermal Systems (EGS) are artificially created geothermal systems made by hydraulically stimulating a rock formation to create a network of interconnected wells and then circulating fluid through the system. Since EGS can theoretically be developed wherever there is a high temperature rock formation, the resource base is huge. EGS holds the potential for large scale, baseload, renewable energy. However, the technology is still in the early stages of development and deployment. For EGS to achieve significant scale, there must be advancement in technologies such as drilling and reservoir stimulation, in addition to demonstration projects and consistent policy support. Since the first EGS fields will be developed on the edges of conventional hydrothermal fields and will utilize many of the same technologies as conventional geothermal plants, conventional geothermal development is critical to the future of EGS as it establishes the infrastructure, industry and knowledge base needed to harness the EGS resource. Geothermal energy has the potential to play a significant role in the US energy mix, but could also remain a relatively unknown bit player if not properly developed. This panel highlights some of the recent developments in unlocking the potential of the EGS resource while discussing key challenges and opportunities going forward. | <urn:uuid:23cccabb-8eb3-4045-9167-84e4fff20c8c> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://ttv.mit.edu/videos/71-2008-mit-energy-conference-the-path-from-conventional-hydrothermal-to-nationwide-engineered-geotherma | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280850.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00318-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936062 | 338 | 2.90625 | 3 |
The sailors have been using the placement of the stars and moon for ages to navigate the waters of the great oceans. Similarly, the Sun can also be very useful in navigation. It can prove to be a very useful tool to help one stay on one’s course in the backwoods. There are certain simple methods using which the Sun can be used for navigation. Though the closer one is to the equator or the poles, the much less precise these methods become but most of the landmass lay at latitudes in which these methods can be used.
Discovering North and South close to midday
The sunrise direction can be taken generally as East, though not true East and the direction of sunset can be taken as West, though not true West. They can be used to get a general idea of direction.
At noon in places like North America, Europe or North Asia, the Sun is on our South. For instance during a time slot of 11am to 1pm, if anyone is standing facing the Sun, then he is facing South which means behind that person lies North. By using this simple method, the directions can be determined when one is in the Northern hemisphere. It is important to keep in mind that East is on our left and West on our right.
This same method can be used to determine directions in the Southern hemisphere as well. While in the Southern hemisphere the directions would just be opposite of that of the Northern hemisphere, that is at noon if a person is standing facing the Sun, then he is facing North which means just behind him is South. The East lies on his right and the West lies on his left, though in the northernmost areas of Argentina or South Africa, the position of the Sun seems to be directly overhead at noon during a few days of the year. But this happens for only a few days in a year.
Locating the North and South using the Sun
When one is facing the morning Sun, North will be on his left and similarly when one is facing the evening Sun, North will be on his right. This simple method will help one find the direction in which he is supposed to travel and also remain on course.
Using the watch to figure out direction
While being in the Northern hemisphere, one can figure out directions by using a simple watch and the ever present Sun. If one points the hour hand towards the Sun, the approximate South will be between the hour hand and 12 o’clock. This same method can be used in the Southern hemisphere to figure out the approximate North. In daylight saving zones, the approximate North and South will be between the hour hand and 1 o’clock.
The stick and the shadow method
This is a very simple method to figure out directions. All one needs is a stick and the Sun. All one needs to do is place a stick vertically in the ground and mark the tip of the shadow. Now wait for 10-15 mins and mark the new position of the shadow’s tip. A straight line needs to be drawn connecting the two marks. This is the approximate East-West line. Now if one stands on the line, having the first mark that is West on the left and the second mark that is East on the right, then the person is mostly facing the true North regardless of where he is in the World.
The above mentioned methods are easy to follow and will give one almost true directions. These methods can be very useful when one goes for hiking, camping and other outdoor explorations. Especially in the wilderness knowing one’s exact location is a crucial part of one’s survival. Knowing the directions will increase the chances of one reaching his desired location. Hence, the above methods can be very useful to one to figure out his location and reach his destination. | <urn:uuid:adeaf141-dc6c-4d12-8903-f21c8af4bf89> | CC-MAIN-2020-24 | https://www.readytribe.com/how-to-navigate-using-the-sun/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590348496026.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20200605080742-20200605110742-00129.warc.gz | en | 0.958402 | 769 | 3.34375 | 3 |
Follow the expedition in Google Earth.
Starting July 10, 2008, scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Russia’s Institute of Forests will start a raft trip down Kotuykan River, in a remote and harsh section of northernmost central Siberia. Along the way, the team will make observations and gather data that will help advance studies of the impact of climate change on Arctic ecosystems. NASA Ecologist Jon Ranson will be calling in field reports via satellite phone during the 15-day expedition, and the Earth Observatory will be hosting them in a blog. This map tracks the team’s progress. | <urn:uuid:d41e082a-4ef3-47d6-b7c2-f1c87497dc98> | CC-MAIN-2015-48 | http://www.earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/SiberiaBlog2008/siberia_map.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-48/segments/1448398446535.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20151124205406-00263-ip-10-71-132-137.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.874451 | 127 | 3.09375 | 3 |
This image shows fine-grained material inside the Robotic Arm scoop as seen by the Robotic Arm Camera (RAC) aboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander on June 25, 2008, the 30th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
The image shows fine, fluffy, red soil particles collected in a sample called 'Rosy Red.' The sample was dug from the trench named 'Snow White' in the area called 'Wonderland.' Some of the Rosy Red sample was delivered to Phoenix's Optical Microscope and Wet Chemistry Laboratory for analysis.
The RAC provides its own illumination, so the color seen in RAC images is color as seen on Earth, not color as it would appear on Mars.
The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.
Photojournal Note: As planned, the Phoenix lander, which landed May 25, 2008 23:53 UTC, ended communications in November 2008, about six months after landing, when its solar panels ceased operating in the dark Martian winter. | <urn:uuid:27f48d4a-da7e-4072-ba2e-9860fe1f28ce> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10919 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802768741.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075248-00014-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935002 | 245 | 3.265625 | 3 |
NATRUM SULPH or sodium sulphate when imbalanced produces edema in the tissues, dry skin with watery eruptions, poor bile and pancreas activity, headaches, and gouty symptoms. Nat Sulph acts to remove wastes from the cells. Use this cell salt when there are symptoms such as chills, malaria, influenza, watery infiltration, and other conditions where there is a need to regulate the excretion of superfluous water. Nat Sulph is also important as a liver salt. It controls the healthy function of the liver. This cell salt is also useful in the later stages of digestion.
Cell Salt, Nat Sulf can help with the following
An essential mineral that our bodies regulate and conserve. Excess sodium retention increases the fluid volume (edema) and low sodium leads to less fluid and relative dehydration. The adult body averages a total content of over 100 grams of sodium, of which a surprising one-third is in bone. A small amount of sodium does get into cell interiors, but this represents only about ten percent of the body content. The remaining 57 percent or so of the body sodium content is in the fluid immediately surrounding the cells, where it is the major cation (positive ion). The role of sodium in the extracellular fluid is maintaining osmotic equilibrium (the proper difference in ions dissolved in the fluids inside and outside the cell) and extracellular fluid volume. Sodium is also involved in nerve impulse transmission, muscle tone and nutrient transport. All of these functions are interrelated with potassium.
Abnormal accumulation of fluids within tissues resulting in swelling.
A bitter, yellow-green secretion of the liver. Bile is stored in the gallbladder and is released when fat enters the first part of the small intestine (duodenum) in order to aid digestion. | <urn:uuid:579d0be9-817b-4086-934d-52b5133dff71> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | https://www.digitalnaturopath.com/treatments/cell-salt-nat-sulf/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247505838.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20190221152543-20190221174543-00060.warc.gz | en | 0.904512 | 375 | 3.75 | 4 |
Whether you choose to mow your own lawn or have us do it for you, we'll share with you our method and how you can help to make your lawn healthy and green!
Besides being expensive, over-watering damages the lawn, contributes to poor growth, and causes serious disease problems. Over-watering contributes to iron chlorosis or yellowing in lawns, trees and shrubs, and makes more frequent fertilizer applications necessary. Water is usually applied too often and left on too long so water runs down the gutter. Turf studies show that most lawns only need to be watered once every 3 or 4 days to stay healthy and green. Water infrequently and deeply. If water is applied every day, the roots accumulate in the top 1 to 2 inches of soil. This creates weak plants that are more subject to insect, disease and drought damage.
Unfortunately, if your neighbor has weeds or dandelions, you will probably have weeds or dandelions. But, here’s what can help: | <urn:uuid:8fc2aa73-0c14-427e-9c7b-98c1f37c9380> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://www.losgringoslawn-landscape.com/unsolicited-advice--info/archives/03-2017 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100724.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20231208045320-20231208075320-00675.warc.gz | en | 0.950721 | 209 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Ecclesiastes – Words Be Few
In the first seven verses of chapter five Solomon warns us about recklessly approaching God. Approach is Important! He encourages us to approach God with silence, with humility, and with awe. We also talked of the importance of approaching God through Jesus. So often we can tend towards approaching God with a series of steps and we come dangerously close to ignoring God rather than coming to him with sincerity. Here are some further questions to help you apply the passage in your own life.
Q. When do you approach God? What situations or actions in your life involve approaching God?
Q. Can you think of occasions, whether with God or others, when you have said things that you wish you could take back?
Q. Are you afraid of silence? Could you say you have learnt the art of silence? What does that look like?
Q. Have you ever made a vow or a promise to God? Have you fulfilled that vow? How has that affected life? [for further reading consider the story of Jephthah – Judges 11]
Q. How might you foster humility in your life and before God?
Q. How is awe connected to fear?
Q. In what practical ways might you approach God with awe?
Q. Read Isaiah 1:11-20. What position has God taken towards the people? What resolution does He offer? | <urn:uuid:7566d695-eb58-48db-b471-56552c299bdb> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | http://www.mildurabaptist.org/church/blog/ecclesiastes-words-be-few/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540490743.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20191206173152-20191206201152-00507.warc.gz | en | 0.950928 | 286 | 2.671875 | 3 |
The Spirit of Freedom
JUNE 01, 1985 by ROBERT G. BEARCE
Mr. Bearce is a free-lance writer In Houston, Texas.
On July 3, 1776, the events of the previous day were fresh on John Adams’ mind when he wrote to his wife Abigail: “The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.”
John Adams was enthusiastic about the historic action taken by the Continental Congress on July 2. A resolution favoring independence from Great Britain had been carried by the affirmative vote of twelve Colonies. Not until the 4th of July, though, was the actual Declaration of Independence formally adopted. Although Adams missed foretelling the exact day of future celebrations, he accurately described the manner in which America’s Independence Day would be remembered by later generations.
Each Fourth of July, Americans commemorate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. “Old Glory” comes out of the closet and appears on front porches across the nation. Bands play “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” Thoughtful citizens give thanks for the blessings of liberty.
Such patriotic enthusiasm appears as a yearly ritual across the United States. The outward display of loyalty is there, but does this allegiance reflect an in-depth understanding of the Declaration of Independence—a real commitment to personal freedom?
Although John Adams wrote triumphantly to Abigail about the vote for independence, he added a critical observation: “You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration and support and defend these states.”
The Critical Challenge
We are now facing that same critical challenge. The Declaration of Independence may be extolled, but just praising it as a relevant, thoughtful document of freedom will not preserve it. Enshrining it will not strengthen freedom. Instead, we must re-examine and reassert the principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence.
Consider the second inspiring sentence of the document: “We hold these truths to be self- evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness . . .”
The colonists had enjoyed these God-given rights and others since the first settling of America. With varying degrees of freedom, they could own property, bear firearms, and worship as they pleased. They had the right of trial by jury, and they practiced representative government. Most important, they had been free to live their own lives as they—not the government—best saw fit.
When these freedoms were threatened by Parliament and King George III, the colonists became indignant. Receiving no just response to their grievances, they chose to separate themselves from the mother country. The Declaration of Independence was the formal statement of their decision to be totally independent and self-governing.
The real importance of the Declaration, however, is its fundamental assertion of individual freedom. Even if the demand for political independence had not been made, the document would still be a profound statement in defense of human dignity. When the Thirteen Colonies proclaimed their independence as the United States, they were reaffirming personal freedom and rejecting authoritarian rule by government over the individual.
Several years after the United States had won independence from Great Britain, a veteran of the Lexington-Concord fight in 1775 was asked why he had fought against the British. “We had always governed ourselves,” replied the rugged old minuteman, “and we always meant to. They didn’t mean we should.”
His forthright answer reveals the main issue of the American War of Independence—FREEDOM. The minuteman understood that if he was to have freedom, he would have to enjoy the right of self-government. He reasoned that he could govern himself only to the extent that he exercised personal judgment and choice over his own affairs. For almost one hundred fifty years, the colonists had done just that—accepted individual freedom, responsibility, and accountability for their own lives. Government regulations and controls threatened that freedom.
The Declaration of Independence clearly states the objection to oppressive governmental authority. The central portion of the document shows that the colonists were protesting abuse of power, usurpation of their rights, obstruction of justice, and governmental interference. Speaking of the King of England, they pointed to this abuse of government authority: “He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.”
Although he was eventually characterized as such, King George III was not a tyrant. He and Parliament had shown a rather benevolent, paternalistic attitude toward the Thirteen Colonies—an attitude similar to the “compassion” and “concern for the disadvantaged” supposedly shown by our modern-day politicians. Like young, immature children, the Colonies were to benefit from the fatherly hand of the British Crown. But they were not very impressed by this paternal hand of regulation, decrees, taxes, and other bureaucratic interventions.
“Tyranny!” shouted the colonists. They saw unlimited government power for what it was—the seed of repression and subjugation. Patriots like Thomas Jefferson fought for the principles of limited government and individual freedom. They knew that the main role of government was twofold: (1) apprehending and punishing domestic evildoers—those people who would violate other people’s right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” (2) organizing the defense of law-abiding citizens against foreign aggression. Government was not to be the source of a people’s material welfare.
The Declaration of Independence speaks eloquently of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” for the individual. These rights could be secured only when government itself was held within strict boundaries of power and authority. The colonists realized they could improve their own personal lives if they were free of government interference. They did not want the government trying to do for them what they could and should do for themselves. They asked only for the freedom to enjoy the just fruits of their daily labors.
Even as the Crown continued to infringe upon their “unalienable rights,” the colonists followed legal channels of protest, expressing loyalty to the King. There was the firm intention of retaining the traditional political relationship with England. The preservation of free-dom-not revolution—was on the colonists’ minds.
Eventually, patience ran out, prompting Patrick Henry to declare: “We have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned, we have remonstrated, we have supplicated, we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned with contempt from the foot of the throne.”
The American War of Independence was fought to preserve a truly “revolutionary” truth—each of us is a unique individual, able to accept self-responsibility and thus to enjoy personal dignity. For the most part, the governments, systems, revolutions, societies, and ideologies of the world have tried to suppress that truth. People have been enslaved, tortured, and killed by those who reject man’s God-given right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
The American colonists had seen the approach of slavery. In the Declaration of Independence, they accused King George III of seeking the “establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States.” Similar language was used by the revolutionary Jacobins during the French Revolution when they assailed the monarchy under Louis XVI. The French radicals shouted lofty slogans about liberty, but their bloody revolution against the monarchy hardly parallels the spirit of the American Revolution—the true spirit of freedom.
“Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!” clamored the revolutionaries of France. Louis XVI lost his head on the guillotine. So did thousands of other Frenchmen.
The leaders of the French Revolution of 1789 had read the Declaration of Independence. They admired America’s document of freedom. Unfortunately, they lauded it but rejected its principles. They failed to comprehend what Jefferson and Adams meant when they said “all men are created equal.” Equality as it is outlined in the Declaration says that individuals are equal in their right to be free and independent—to be free and independent as long as they respect the rights of others to be free and independent, with everyone respecting property and other individual rights.
Each person should have the right to rise to the height of self-realization consistent with that person’s individual talents, ambition, and willingness to accept personal accountability. In seeking this self-fulfillment, each person must respect the equal rights of other individuals.
When a government respects true equality—the equal right to enjoy personal freedom—the result will be that many differences will exist among the citizenry. This natural condition of inequality is consistent with freedom, justice, and human nature. Individuals are unique. Each person has varying talents, aspirations, and weaknesses. If individuals are free to arrange their own lives, they create a diverse society where men and women attain different social, intellectual, and economic status.
Equal Treatment Results in Many Differences
Individuals are equal in their right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”—so long as they accept responsibility for their own lives and recognize their personal accountability for their failures, shortcomings, and misdeeds. Regrettably for mankind, modern-day politicians and “social architects” like the French revolutionaries reject this truth.
Robespierre, Danton, and other leaders of the French Revolution believed they could bring about the regeneration of humanity through the power of the State (government power and authority). Although they spoke much about freedom, they actually denied self-determination and the free will of the individual. They insisted that man was the product of his environment. Crime, poverty, greed—these were supposedly inflicted upon humanity by corrupt political, social, and economic conditions/institutions. By the use of government authority and power, the revolutionaries believed they could erect a near-perfect if not perfect society.
The visionaries of Revolutionary France had a distorted view of human nature—a distorted view still held by many people today in the media, in politics, in our universities, and even in our religious institutions. The theory-minded leaders of the French Revolution believed that the individual was inherently virtuous. If a person committed murder, he should not be harshly condemned for a criminal act. Rather, he should be regarded as the victim of adverse social or economic conditions which drove him to the act of taking another individual’s life.
Thus, the French revolutionaries focused their efforts to build the virtuous society by removing what they mistakenly thought caused people to act in “antisocial” ways. By reconstructing society through the power of the State, they were convinced that people would return to their basic goodness, virtue, and righteousness.
The government leaders of the French Revolution said that they loved humanity. They said that they were for the “poor and homeless,” “the helpless and abused,” and “the needy,” but in reality, they rejected the true meaning of human dignity contained in the Declaration of In dependence. They placed Society and the State above the individual and individual freedom, whereas the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence in America placed the individual above the State.
The patriots of the American Revolution had faith in individual freedom. Freedom—not government power—was the foundation for true progress, self-improvement, and happiness. Absolute equality and perfection brought about by government authority were illusions. Only free individuals in a truly free nation could achieve material welfare, human dignity, and personal fulfillment. Only when the individual has both the freedom to make choices and the corresponding obligation to abide by the just consequences of those choices, can he achieve self-respect.
By adhering to the principles of the Declaration of Independence, Americans have attained material abundance and personal dignity. The blessings of liberty have been enjoyed because free individuals have been allowed in the past to labor freely in a free society. Yet, we have also been abandoning the basic truths upon which America was founded.
From the halls of Congress to the academic forum, we hear that government has the answer to all of our society’s ills. We are assured that government can and should solve every problem from hunger to faulty automobile bumpers. Commissions . . . regulations . . . controls . . . rules . . . coercion . . . Congressional committees . . . subcommittees . . . regimentation . . . and more regimentation—all should remind us of the grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence.
Coercion, paternalism, restrictive legislation, and unconstitutional government intervention will gain ground to the extent that we are indifferent to the cause of true freedom. When we remain silent, we will be responsible for our own destruction—moral degeneracy, material/economic stagnation, and eventual physical slavery.
The principles of freedom will continue to be eroded as long as free individuals relax in their complacency. “Is this the part of wise men,” asked Patrick Henry in March, 1775, “engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation?”
Freedom is threatened today just as it was threatened at the time of the Declaration of Independence. The colonists wanted less government—not more of it in their daily lives. They wanted to be free to release their own creativity and energies. The “pursuit of happiness” was their own responsibility. They stated in the Declaration “that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The early patriots of America believed that government should protect their “unalienable rights.” It had no right to interfere with “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” other than that of prosecuting law-breakers and maintaining self-defense from foreign aggression. The colonists were free people struggling to remain free.
Living in freedom had strengthened the character of the colonists. They recognized the existence of moral absolutes. Right was right. Wrong was wrong. They were individuals who valued honesty, hard work, thrift, and an equal respect for the rights of others. They knew what they believed and why they believed it. They said what they meant and meant what they said.
Humble Before God
Although the colonists were self-reliant and independent, they were humble before God. True liberty was found in a genuine reverence for Almighty God and obedience to His commandments—not worship of government authority. Their spiritual faith gave them a clear understanding of their personal roles in life. They accepted the rugged challenges of life, knowing that in worldly affairs, the Lord, indeed, helped those who helped themselves.
The farmers and shopkeepers who took up arms against the Redcoats heeded Ben Franklin’s admonition: “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
The patriots of 1776 chose both liberty and the responsibility of defending that freedom. The Continental soldier fought at Trenton and Germantown . . . suffered at Valley Forge . . . and finally won independence. The “spirit of ‘76" is the faith and spirit of freedom. If Patrick Henry and other patriots were willing to die for freedom, certainly we should live for freedom. We face the continued struggle for liberty. Battles lie ahead. We are in continual warfare. These are facts that we must accept honestly as we consider Patrick Henry’s words back in 1775:
“The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is not too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery!”
A State of War
Today, free people are in a state of warfare—a continued battle prompted by those who oppose freedom. We need to acknowledge our current challenge to keep alive the spirit of freedom and to strengthen freedom.
First, we need an honest, sincere, and broad understanding of the basics of freedom. We cannot very well defend that which we cannot adequately explain and present to other people. We should ask ourselves how well we truly understand such principles of freedom as the free- market exchange of goods and services . . . persona] freedom/accountability . . . no coercion against law-abiding citizens . . . voluntary cooperation . . . limited, strictly defined government power.
Do we understand these principles? Are we doing what we can to understand them better?
Second, in order to rejuvenate the spirit of freedom, we must practice the freedom faith continually, consistently, and earnestly in our own personal lives. Some warriors for the cause of freedom know the ABCs on the subject, and they are on the battle fronts, such as actively campaigning for pro-freedom candidates for Congress.
Such “activism” is to be cheered and encouraged, but woe! Some of those hard-charging freedom warriors will (1) on Monday, demand the total elimination of the federally funded Legal Services Corporation, but (2) on Tuesday lobby the federal government for an increase in federal subsidies and low interest loans for farmers. The wayward, backslidden freedom troopers in this case are an association of farmers who are more interested in their “special interest” than in individual freedom and responsibility.
No, we cannot have that type of inconsistency if the spirit of freedom is to be enhanced and strengthened.
Third, we must diligently protect freedom. Patrick Henry advised that those who would defend liberty must be strong, active, brave, and vigilant. “Vigilance is the price of liberty,” and today we should be vigilant—seeing where and how freedom is being undermined.
For example, we ought to see that many reporters, commentators, editors, publishers, and anchor persons are not the fair, objective, accurate, and honest news people they would like us to believe. Instead, they are prejudiced against freedom. They show a clear bias in favor of more government—a support for more government intervention that daily translates into a corruption of the truth.
A good portion of the major news media people have a personal belief that the government should be spending more—not less—for education, the arts, welfare, health, and the like. They personally believe that government regulations and programs—not free people working freely in a free society—are the best way to make sure individuals are sufficiently housed, clothed, fed, and given proper medical care.
Even though we may have a very sound grasp of the basics of freedom, we must be vigilant to the distortions, half-truths, and slanted reporting we receive from media sources around us.
Fourth, we should be earnest spokesmen for freedom, actively taking a part in the current battles affecting our daily lives. It isn’t enough to appreciate the writings of Bastiat, Jefferson, Burke, Tocqueville, and Ludwig von Mises. Nor do we accomplish much by railing at the supper table about Congress’s latest repudiation of the oath of office to defend the Constitution of the United States. Rather, we should practice what we preach by becoming intelligently, firmly, and consistently involved defending freedom, explaining it, and strengthening it.
Words of Wisdom
Two men who signed the Declaration of Independence back in 1776 still speak to us as we seek to learn more about freedom. “A wise and frugal government,” advises Thomas Jefferson, “which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government . . .”
Dr. John Witherspoon, the only active clergyman to sign the Declaration, gives us a final insight into the spirit of freedom:
“A good form of government may hold the rotten materials together for some time, but beyond a certain pitch even the best constitution will be ineffectual, and slavery will ensue. On the other hand, when the manners of a nation are pure, when true religion and internal principles maintain their vigor, the attempts of the most powerful enemies to oppress them are commonly baffled and disappointed.” | <urn:uuid:fd1a313d-ee08-4337-a114-928909715034> | CC-MAIN-2014-49 | http://fee.org/the_freeman/detail/the-spirit-of-freedom | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-49/segments/1416400380037.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20141119123300-00089-ip-10-235-23-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964207 | 4,458 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Strategies implemented before the age of 16 that are designed to prevent young people from becoming NEET are likely to be the most effective way of reducing local NEET levels.
This observation in a recent report by the Institute of Health Equity highlights the importance of early intervention in keeping young people from becoming one of the 16 per cent of 16-24 year olds in this country described as NEET (not in education, employment or training).
Prevention, rather than cure, is particularly important when considering NEETs who do not face multiple or complex barriers – who, as shown from our own research, make up almost two-thirds of the NEET group. These young people don’t significantly struggle with school, nor are they generally dealing with difficult home lives or other major challenges that can stop them engaging. Instead they disengage for a whole host of other reasons – not liking (or not being aware of) the education and training options available to them post-16, for example.
Over the past year we have been working with a group of secondary schools across England who are already running programmes to do exactly this – prevent their students from becoming NEET. The projects vary greatly across schools. One is providing academic mentoring, another extended work experience, while others have allowed the students to work towards alternative qualifications. Key to all the support strategies is identifying the right young people who would benefit, and the reasons why they are at risk.
While it’s still early days, students are already reporting benefits from the support they are receiving: “It’s made me realise that education is important and you need it to get far in life,” said one participant.
Despite the range of different approaches, and the early stage of the research, we are starting to see common threads among these schemes that seem to be contributing to their success. These include:
• flexibility – ensuring that, as much as is practical, programmes are tailored to the needs and interests of the individual young person
• open and supportive relationships between staff and students – this is particularly relevant for one-to-one support and mentoring
• opening up the students’ horizons – providing them with the knowledge to feel confident in making decisions for their future.
Crucially, we have seen how important it is that these preventative programmes have buy-in from all those involved, from senior leaders within schools and other members of staff, to students (who need to feel that they are not being targeted or stigmatised) and parents. Regular communication is vital for this to happen.
To share the learning from this emerging evidence with other schools, we will soon be publishing a free ‘Top Tips’ guide for senior leaders offering advice on developing a support programme for students in a systematic and structured way. We hope this proves to be a useful tool for schools as they continue to support their students to remain engaged at Key Stage 4. And ultimately prevent them from becoming NEET. | <urn:uuid:297fb4c6-f905-4dcf-a884-ec061acdf2b2> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | https://thenferblog.org/2014/10/23/prevention-is-a-neet-solution/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424945.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20170725002242-20170725022242-00556.warc.gz | en | 0.972047 | 604 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Spying on plants–electrical communications using aphids
Last updated: 23 May, 2014
In a recent study published in New Phytologist by Salvador-Recatalà et al., aphids have been used to tap into the plant phloem communication system. Recording the electrical signals which travel through the phloem is normally an intricate procedure, using extremely fragile electrodes; however using aphid stylets, which are more flexible and not easily dislodged, enabled Salvador-Recatalà et al., to discover that the nibbling of caterpillars induces electrical signals which are similar to those transmitted by wounding.
Aphid infestation on rose. Photo: Drriss and Marrionn, CC BY-NC-SA.
These findings suggest that the plant electrical signalling network functions through the same mechanics that neurons rely on, using molecular building blocks to construct a response network.
The article has been highlighted by Malcolm Campbell, New Phytologist Advisor and Professor & Vice-Principal Research at University of Toronto, in several online articles:
- Using bugs—aphids, specifically—to spy on plants’ electrical communication
- Bugging the line: Aphids help us spy on plant communication
- Spying on plant communication with tiny bugs
Salvador-Recatalà V, Tjallingii WF and Farmer EE. 2014. Real-time, in vivo intracellular recordings of caterpillar-induced depolarization waves in sieve elements using aphid electrodes. New Phytologist. doi: 10.1111/nph.12807 | <urn:uuid:80d9590c-52ec-413e-953c-0666edcec23e> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | https://www.newphytologist.org/news/view/44 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376825728.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20181214114739-20181214140239-00542.warc.gz | en | 0.837763 | 325 | 3.140625 | 3 |
This is a very very simple algorithm, that I am sure can be solved in many many different languages. In Spain ID cards (known as DNI) consist of 8 numbers and a control character. The control character is calculated with the following algorithm: divide the number by 23, take the remainder of the operation and replace it with a character according to this table:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 T R W A G M Y F P D X B N J Z S Q V H L C K E
If the DNI belongs to a foreign person living in Spain, the first digit is changed to
Z and it is called an NIE. In this case, the following substitutions are made before calculating the control character:
X Y Z 0 1 2
There are a lot of calculators online that help you get the control character, but, how short can you write that code? Write an algorithm (program or function) that receives a
string with the DNI number (that will always consist of 8 alphanumeric characters) and returns just the single control character calculated and nothing more (a trailing newline is accepted).
- The DNI is always written in uppercase, but in your algorithm you can choose the input and output to be upper- or lowercase, just be consistent.
- In real life, some NIEs issued before 2008 have 8 digits after the
Z, but for the purposes of this game, you can consider they have 7 digits as they have nowadays.
- You can consider that the input string will always have 8 characters, but if they are not in the "8 digits" format nor the "[XYZ] plus 7 digits" format, you must return an error (of your choice) or just throw an exception.
00000010 -> X (HRM Juan Carlos I's DNI number) 01234567 -> L 98765432 -> M 69696969 -> T 42424242 -> Y Z5555555 -> W (Z=2) Y0000369 -> S (Y=1) A1234567 -> <Error code or exception> 1231XX12 -> <Error code or exception>
This is code-golf, so may the shortest code for each language win! | <urn:uuid:f66bdbea-7ce2-43d2-be8f-e25ae07d8a84> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/questions/129519/spanish-id-card-control-character-calculator | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323584913.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20211016170013-20211016200013-00386.warc.gz | en | 0.902929 | 481 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Dr Norman Page Houston.
You ( Andy Revkin) say
"Pursuing wise policies on curbing greenhouse gas emissions and on boosting resilience to extreme events both make sense,"
This is not true.It is now likely that for the next 30 years at least the earth will be in a cooling trend. Anthropogenic CO2 emissions have a hardly measurable effect on global climate compared with natural variability. Check my various posts on
climatesense-norpag.blogspot.com to see the empirical basis for this viewpoint.
The IPCC now says
"“Uncertainty in the sign of projected changes in climate extremes over the coming two to three decades is relatively large because climate change signals are expected to be relatively small compared to natural climate variability”.
Unless we get the science right we will make the wrong decisions.Cooling would bring e.g.more east coast hurricanes with some accompanying blizzards,more violent and frequent tornadoes and corn belt droughts and western forest fires . Warming e.g would bring more equable weather with better crop yields but with more category 4 Gulf Coast hurricanes.
We must identify the threats from either cooling or warming correctly and make the necessary infrastructue investments based on empirical cost - benefit analysis.
Even if the climate were to warm, curbing CO2 would make little difference at enormous economic cost - especially to the worlds poor , especially if ethanol and biofuel use continue to be mandated.
Adaptation is the only sensible policy in either case . | <urn:uuid:ee23d408-e70c-48c9-9314-87abdd2adbd5> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://climatesense-norpag.blogspot.com/2012/11/post-on-dot-earth-11112-adaptation.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501170253.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104610-00370-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914463 | 312 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Prior to 1900, this area of the Little River Valley and the surrounding tributary streams was called Tuckaleechee Cove – a name meaning “peaceful valley” given to the region by the Cherokees who lived here prior to the first white settlers arrival in the late 1700s. And, for more than a century after these first settlements, it remained a “peaceful valley,” with subsistence farming along the valleys being the primary livelihood of the inhabitants. Then for a relatively brief period of less than 40 years it was a beehive of commercial lumbering activity. But since the establishment of the great Smoky Mountains National Park in the 1930s, the area has re-emerged as “The Peaceful Side of the Smokies. “
In 1900, Wilson B. Townsend and a group of fellow Pennsylvanians formed the Little River Lumber Company, initially intended to supply tanbark for a tannery located at Walland. They bought nearly 80,000 acres of land, much of which now comprises the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. And, in order to log the rugged terrain and move the logs to the mill, they established the Little River Railroad. The headquarters for both the railroad and the lumber company were located in the village which was named Townsend. From here, rails were run deep into the mountains – with workers, equipment, and tools hauled in and logs hauled out by the power of the Shay locomotives, small, powerful, cog driven steam engines which had been developed specifically for working on steep slopes such as these.
Even during this period of intense commercial activity, the scenic mountain country became a popular attraction once the railroads had opened relatively easy access to it. Some of the logging camps, notably Elkmont, began to evolve into tourist hotels. As logging activities began to wane and the railroad tracks removed, the rail beds provided the beginnings of roadways and trails into the Smokies. A prime example is the scenic Little River Road now running from Townsend all the way along the wilds of the Little River to the Sugarlands visitors center. This was originally the rail bed of the Little River Railroad.
In the mid 1930s, most of the forest land originally acquired by W.B. Townsend was sold to the state of Tennessee which turned it over to the National Park Service to form a major part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Because of its proximity to Cades Cove and the easy access to the scenic Little River portion of the park, Townsend became a major portal for visitors to the national park. The other main park portals such as Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Cherokee have seen the development of entertainment and “tourist” centers, many totally unrelated to the natural beauty of the Smoky Mountains, which draw crowds of tourists – and the corresponding traffic jams. Unlike these more commercialized portals, the Townsend area has remained primarily an uncluttered, pleasant, scenic destination for those who want to enjoy the natural beauty of the Smokies without undue artificial distractions. | <urn:uuid:06fcf23a-8f71-4af7-ad5b-67f797b6c6d0> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | http://townsendchamber.org/townsend-tennessee-history/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232262029.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20190527065651-20190527091651-00033.warc.gz | en | 0.972311 | 627 | 3.359375 | 3 |
The review was led by UEA, and involved researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Stirling
Evidence published in the Cochrane Library provides strong evidence that financial incentives helped people to stop smoking, and stay stopped long term.
The review—led by University of East Anglia and involving researchers from the University of Oxford and University of Stirling—also found that incentives helped pregnant women stop smoking.
Smoking is a leading cause of disease and death worldwide, said Dr Caitlin Notley, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School.
“Most smokers want to quit, but stopping smoking can be really challenging. Quitting smoking can greatly improve peoples’ health. Rewards, such as money or vouchers, have been used to encourage smokers to quit, and to reward them if they stay stopped. Such schemes have been used in workplaces, in clinics and hospitals, and within community programmes.
“We wanted to know whether these schemes actually work long term, as previously it was thought that perhaps incentives only worked for the time that they were given. We found that they do help people stay smoke free, even after the incentive scheme ends.
Smoking costs the British economy nearly £13 billion, including over £3 billion for health insurance cover and social care and £7.5 billion to lost productivity.
The total financial amount of incentives varied considerably between trials, from zero (self-deposits), to a range of between £35 ($45 USD) and £912 ($1185).
The team investigated whether rewards such as cash payments, vouchers, or the return of money deposited by those taking part, worked.
All of the trials in the general population followed participants for at least six months and those who quit were checked by testing their breath or bodily fluids.
The researchers say that the certainty of their findings in the general population is high. Their certainty about the findings in pregnant women is moderate, as there weren’t as many studies and some were lower quality.
Dr Notley said: “We found that six months or more after the beginning of the trials, people receiving rewards were approximately 50 per cent more likely to have stopped smoking than those in the control groups.
“In people not receiving incentives, approximately seven per cent had successfully quit for six months or longer, compared to approximately 10.5 per cent of those receiving incentives.
“This is an important increase when we consider the enormous harms of smoking, and benefits of quitting, and suggests that incentives can be a useful part of a comprehensive approach to help people quit smoking. Another really important thing is that success rates continued beyond when the incentives had ended.”
Courtesy: Cochrane Library | <urn:uuid:c70ea7eb-4c59-46d6-abbd-f9f648e02250> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/rewards-incentivise-people-to-stop-smoking.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575540499439.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20191207132817-20191207160817-00270.warc.gz | en | 0.976182 | 552 | 2.59375 | 3 |
(For layering armor, see Armor:Size, Permit, and layering armor)
There are four types of stone layers in Dwarf Fortress. Each has different types of ore and gems available. Layers are extremely important in site selection because it determines what metals there are to work with. Layers also help in determining where to begin exploratory mining depending on what is needed for the fortress.
Often includes coal, iron ore, and all but one of the flux stones, all the components for making steel. Never found in the same biome as igneous extrusive. Full to the brim with valuable and useful deposits. Only place to find bituminous coal and lignite, and iron ore in large clusters (magnetite). Good choice for exploratory mining.
Contains a small variety of ores, but tends to be rich in gems. Includes marble, the only non-sedimentary flux. If there are no flux sedimentary layers, metamorphic layers can be useful in the early stages, but the lack of weapon quality ore (besides copper and silver) make it a poor choice for full scale exploratory mining in the early game.
It is likely to include metal ores. It also indicates a good chance of magma being present in some form or another above the magma sea. Never found in the same biome as sedimentary. Igneous extrusive layers can contain veins of Hematite, an ore of iron.
Like extrusive, also often contains magma, but farther down typically. Often contains gold or copper ore.
When soil is present, it will always be the top layer or two, above any stone layers. Appears in brown on the embark menu. Useful for growing crops and storage, but provides no rock for building.
An aquifer is not a separate layer, but overlaps one or more layers of stone or soil. When viewing the layers on the embark menu, it is indicated by a line of blue tildes(~) next to the layer(s) involved. This layer of water-generating stone can be used as a water source, but also can be a potential barrier to all layers below it.
See Also: Stone | <urn:uuid:005f30f2-14d9-4772-ab64-545ef9a74ecd> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/v0.31:Stone_layers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764494974.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20230127065356-20230127095356-00832.warc.gz | en | 0.908003 | 513 | 3.140625 | 3 |
PALO ALTO, Calif., April 14 (UPI) -- The effect of black carbon -- soot -- on climate change depends on the altitude at which it is found in the atmosphere, U.S. researchers say.
Black carbon -- emitted from diesel engines, burning wood and other sources -- acts as an absorbing aerosol, a particle that absorbs the sun's heating rays, researchers at the Carnegie Institution in California said.
The researchers ran simulations of adding a theoretical 1 million tons of black carbon uniformly around the globe at different altitudes in the atmosphere, a Carnegie release said Thursday. They found the addition of black carbon near the land and ocean surface caused the surface to heat, but surface warming decreased as the altitude of the soot increased.
The simulated addition of black carbon to the stratosphere caused the opposite effect, cooling the land and oceans even though the soot caused Earth as a whole to absorb more energy from the sun.
This is because when black carbon is high in the atmosphere it can lose its energy to space while helping to shade the land and ocean surface, the researchers said.
"We showed that black carbon near Earth's surface has the greatest effect on global warming," Carnegie researcher Ken Caldiera said.
"Unfortunately, this is exactly where we are putting most of the black carbon that we add to the atmosphere. This black carbon also often causes health problems, so cleaning up these emissions would help both the environment and human health." | <urn:uuid:8ee86f51-f419-4f5b-aa67-c20f447c3924> | CC-MAIN-2016-22 | http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/04/14/Study-Effects-of-soot-vary-with-altitude/UPI-93581302827695/?rel=62321358369973 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-22/segments/1464054915149.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20160524015515-00015-ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937368 | 297 | 3.8125 | 4 |
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission don't know exactly what is causing the disfigurement of smallmouth bass throughout the southern stretches of the Susquehanna River. But they do know this: the lower Susquehanna formally should be declared "impaired" so that the source of the problem can be identified and attacked.
According to the state Department of Environmental Protection, however, no such designation is necessary. In a circular argument, a spokesman contended that disfigurement of fish in the lower Susquehanna doesn't necessarily mean much because the DEP also has found fish dying in streams with no known pollution problems, making it difficult to determine which, if any, pollutants are at play in the Susquehanna case.
But the objective is to find out. An impairment designation would require the DEP to identify the source affecting the fish and develop a long-term remediation plan.
The foundation and the fish commission have documented that bass populations are experiencing lesions and intersex traits pointing to contamination and forewarning of potential problems for other types of wildlife.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency should not wait for a formal impairment request from the DEP. It should use its own data, issue an impairment finding and start the process of restoring the health of the fish population. Doing so would serve not only the health of the river but the regional economy since, according to the foundation, fishing and river recreation supports thousands of jobs. | <urn:uuid:ec46995a-aa15-48bc-9924-a543442f2ac1> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://thetimes-tribune.com/opinion/river-impaired-1.1480867 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988721558.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183841-00512-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940773 | 298 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Welcome to this
issue of "Dr. T's Timely Tips" by Dr. Tony Alessandra. Please send your feedback
The root of the
word empathy is PATHOS - the Greek word for feeling. SYMpathy means
acknowledging the feelings of someone else as in "I sympathize with you."
EMpathy is a term for a deeper feeling. It means "I feel what you feel. I can
put myself in your shoes." Sympathy results in kindness and sometimes pity.
Empathy results in actually feeling the pain, or the joy, of the other person.
You can see how the willingness to be flexible comes more easily when you can
put yourself in the other person's shoes. Empathy is a key skill taught in
negotiating. William Ury, in his book,
Getting Past No, makes the point that every human being has a deep
need for his or her feelings to be recognized. Knowing this can help
tremendously in a difficult negotiation by creating a climate for agreement.
Ury counsels that it's important to acknowledge both the factual point, and the
feelings of the other person. He uses the example of an employee approaching a
boss. The employee says: "I just found out Dale makes two thousand dollars more
a year than I do for the same job." Trying to explain why Dale makes more money,
even if the reason is a good one, only makes the employee angrier. Instead, you
must acknowledge the fact and the feelings first: "You think we're taking
advantage of you and you're angry. I can understand that. I'd probably feel the
That isn't what an angry person expects. By acknowledging the employee's
feelings, you've helped him calm down. His next statement might be:"Well, why
shouldn't I make as much as Dale does?" That shows he's ready to hear your
The feeling of empathy is much easier to come by when you care about the other
person and take the time to feel what they're feeling. In the worlds of
business, politics, or the professions, that feeling of empathy may not come as
All the great teachers of empathy for others start with the same point: You
cannot truly feel the pain or the joy or the emotion of another until you're
able to feel the same thing in yourself. Do you acknowledge your own pain? Can
you feel your own joy? Real empathy lies in simply finding the same place within
yourself that the other person is experiencing. You might not have had exactly
the same experience but you've known the sadness of loss or the anger of feeling
cheated, or the sense of righteousness at injustice. Some of us don't take the
time to feel our own feelings, so when someone else expresses a feeling, we
don't have much to refer to.
Let me give you another tip. Sometimes we can share a deep feeling vicariously
through reading a great novel or seeing a powerful movie. If you're on a steady
diet of action movies, they don't usually dwell on individual feelings. You
might want to take the time to broaden your reading and viewing habits.
Men are being encouraged to express and share their feelings more these days
through the efforts of Robert Bly and others - and not just soft, vulnerable
feelings, but feelings of anger and frustration as well. You might be concerned
that expressing a caring approach toward another person will result in the other
person manipulating you. This isn't about abdicating your own needs or point of
view. It simply means that you're able to step into the shoes of another and
acknowledge their feelings. Having that ability is an asset. You can always wear
your own shoes, and you do most of the time. | <urn:uuid:670308c5-83ad-4476-a7c1-c2e02fc2afe9> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://www.alessandra.com/timelytips1/143.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218187227.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212947-00258-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962939 | 798 | 3.71875 | 4 |
Adversaries can use stolen session cookies to authenticate to web applications and services. This technique bypasses some multi-factor authentication protocols since the session is already authenticated.
Authentication cookies are commonly used in web applications, including cloud-based services, after a user has authenticated to the service so credentials are not passed and re-authentication does not need to occur as frequently. Cookies are often valid for an extended period of time, even if the web application is not actively used. After the cookie is obtained through Steal Web Session Cookie or Web Cookies, the adversary may then import the cookie into a browser they control and is then able to use the site or application as the user for as long as the session cookie is active. Once logged into the site, an adversary can access sensitive information, read email, or perform actions that the victim account has permissions to perform.
There have been examples of malware targeting session cookies to bypass multi-factor authentication systems.
Configure browsers or tasks to regularly delete persistent cookies.
|ID||Data Source||Data Component||Detects|
|DS0015||Application Log||Application Log Content||
Monitor for third-party application logging, messaging, and/or other service artifacts that provide context of user authentication to web applications, including cloud-based services. Combine this information with web credentials usage events to identify authentication events that do not fit the organization baseline.
|DS0006||Web Credential||Web Credential Usage||
Monitor for anomalous access of websites and cloud-based applications by the same user in different locations or by different systems that do not match expected configurations. | <urn:uuid:7dd387f2-51d8-4c93-a17c-50a518dc7077> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1550/004/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335573.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001070422-20221001100422-00031.warc.gz | en | 0.896238 | 378 | 2.734375 | 3 |
The Ways to Begin the Concluding Paragraph
August 18, 2017| Category: Freelance Writing, Writing Tips
The conclusion is aimed at tying all the ideas of an essay in a single unity to make the reader understand your point of view. A successful conclusion may be written if the following tips are followed.
Outline a Concluding Paragraph
- Go over the thesis statement. An excellent thesis statement is very important for an excellent conclusion. Getting down to writing the conclusion, re-read the arguments making sure it does not lack coherence. A good conclusion must be clear to the readers. An efficient way of deciding whether the conclusion makes sense is reading it aloud.
- Support the conclusion with examples. A good conclusion serves at reminding the readers of the strength of your argument. The effect is achieved by supporting it with specific examples. A quote is a good means of supporting the idea. It may as well be the quotation of a famous person. A good idea for concluding an essay is to use a relevant anecdote.
- Conclude by summarizing the main ideas. Whatever the topic might be, a good conclusion summarizes all the paragraphs of an essay reminding the readers of each argument. Synthesizing is a way of summarizing the ideas by their deep analysis. A concluding paragraph is where you make the readers see how different ideas correlate and get connected.
- Impress the readers. Getting down to writing the conclusion, you should see whether your argument is clearly stated. Look through the main points to make sure they all are mentioned in the conclusion. Make sure your concluding paragraph provides the explanation of the significance of the topic.
How to Start a Concluding Paragraph
- Give the feeling of the finish. The readers must understand that they have come to the end of your essay. To allow the readers to feel the moment of closure, you need to follow certain tips. Firstly, make connections between the introduction and the conclusion. Thus, you “bookend” the topic of your paper. Secondly, consider using a quotation or some facts which you have mentioned in the essay.
- Suggest the next steps. A concluding paragraph might not be decisive, giving the readers some prompts for future actions. There can be suggested a solution to a certain problem or a reference to broader or more general subjects.
- Make sure your language is not complicated. The main point of the conclusion is its being clear and relevant. Do not use long complex sentences in the concluding paragraph. A good idea is to start the conclusion with the words which are composed of one syllable.
- Support your conclusion with context. The argument is understood much better if there is the context provided. A good way to do this is to highlight the significance of the argument exposed in the essay enabling the readers to grab the exact message of the essay. The importance of the essay topic is also explained by the context.
- Demonstrate your creativity. As the readers reach the essay conclusion, they understand it is actually a conclusion. Thus, it is not necessary to state what is implied. Think of the clichés different than “To conclude” to conclude your essay.
Make the Paper Polished.
- Transitions are important. Make sure the parts of your essay are properly linked with the help of linking words. There are numerous linkers to introduce a new argument, to compare or contrast, to express the opinion, etc.
- Be careful while editing. Having finished writing, re-read the essay carefully to make sure there are no mistakes in spelling and grammar. Proofread the essay to see if it is comprehensible. Shorten the paragraphs if necessary. Reading aloud is a good way to spot the omitted mistakes.
- Make sure the essay meets the requirements. Having finished writing, take some time to be sure that all the requirements have been met. Consider the number of pages, as it is important. Make sure the format of your essay corresponds to the specifications. If Times New Roman is a required font, make sure your essay is written in it. Follow the procedure of submission as required. Having been asked to submit the paper written on paper and in an electronic version, do as required. | <urn:uuid:2640f8c3-4f60-4b72-8f40-959cb30495a2> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://4writers.net/blog/the-ways-to-begin-the-concluding-paragraph/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296944452.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20230322211955-20230323001955-00696.warc.gz | en | 0.935361 | 857 | 3.515625 | 4 |
Why Eco-Friendly Products are a Necessity for Cleaning Early Childhood Centres In early learning environments, sickness is unavoidable. The average child gets sick 6 to 10 times per year. However, keeping early childhood centres clean and healthy can significantly reduce the spread of illness.Traditional cleaning products certainly take care of bacteria and germs, but they can be very harsh on the environment and on human health. This has lead to many early childhood companies and managers making the switch to eco-friendly cleaning products. In an early childhood context, there will often be young children who have asthma and allergy problems, which can be exaggerated by harsh cleaning chemicals.Environmentally friendly or ‘green’ cleaners are safer for use around children. We discuss this and some other benefits of eco-friendly cleaning products below:Children’s healthAt home and at school, we do our best to keep our children healthy, but there is always the risk of germs being spread around. This is because:Young children have habits such as putting toys and fingers in their mouths. There are normal, developmental habits – but they do encourage the spread of germs.Children are in close contact with each other during playtime and learning activities.Their immune systems are still developing, making them more likely to pick up illnesses than adults.It is therefore very important that early childhood centres are regularly and thoroughly cleaned. Traditional cleaning products contain ammonia, bleaches, and other aggressive cleaning agents that can actually aggravate some health problems in children. This is particularly the case for respiratory issues, such as asthma and allergies. Young children are also susceptible to skin rashes, irritations, and eczema, which can all be caused or worsened by cleaning chemicals.Eco-friendly cleaning products contain natural cleaning agents, which are less toxic and less irritating for the skin and respiratory systems. This will reduce the likelihood of long-term or ongoing illnesses caused by aggressive cleaning products. This will have flow-on benefits such as more focussed and motivated students who aren’t distracted by feeling unwell. It will also keep sick days to a minimum, which improves attendance and keeps students on track with their learning and development.Cleaner airThe air quality in schools and early learning centres needs to be as pure as possible. Using eco-friendly cleaning products reduces the amount of toxins and irritants in the air, making it safer and easier to breathe for everybody. This includes teachers, parents, and custodial staff as well as the students! Natural cleaning products often contain a lot of essential oils and natural citrus scents, meaning that the smell of the products are a lot more palatable than harsh chemical smells. Traditional cleaning products often have an unpleasant smell that can cause headaches and nausea in those sensitive to them.Protect the environment The eco-conscious movement is growing larger day by day, as more people commit to doing their part to preserve our fragile climate. Many traditional cleaning products consist of harmful chemicals including ammonia, nitrogen, and phosphorous.Such products are used to clean toilets and sinks, or are used as detergents in washing machines and dishwashers. They are washed down the drains and out to water treatment facilities. Unfortunately, not all of the toxins from the products can be removed from the water through the treatment process. That means that some of them end up in rivers, oceans, and other waterways. This can negatively impact wildlife and ecosystems in and near the water.Natural products do not contain these harmful toxins, so by using them you are preventing additional pollution in waterways and protecting important habitats.Mass-produced products from big corporations are made overseas and shipped into the country to be sold. Many natural and eco-friendly cleaning products are also made right here in Aotearoa New Zealand, meaning that you are supporting local businesses and the carbon footprint of these products are much lower.Teach sustainabilityKids go to school to learn, and one of the best ways to teach children something is to lead by example. With the world currently facing a serious climate crisis, everybody needs to be doing their part to learn about eco-friendly living practices. Having these practices embedded in early childhood and other school environments is a great way to expose children to this subject and help them learn about the responsibilities we all have for looking after our planet.As well as using ‘green’ cleaning products, you could use bamboo or sugar cane paper towels and toilet papers, introduce recycling and composting, or teach about gardening and growing your own food.Our commitment to eco-friendly cleaningCrewcare is committed to health, safety, and sustainability. We only use ‘green’ cleaning products and have developed an Environmental Policy to guide us in the way we work. Crewcare can be trusted to provide a quality cleaning service to your early education centre or school, which won’t harm the planet or the health of your students. Contact us today to find out more. | <urn:uuid:113dd323-daf1-41c0-8344-7fca663f4b7d> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://crewcare.co.nz/blog/eco-friendly-school-cleaning-products/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250605075.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20200121192553-20200121221553-00138.warc.gz | en | 0.968869 | 993 | 3.375 | 3 |
Everything you need to understand or teach This House of Sky by Ivan Doig.
The author lives in the American Northwest, the city of Seattle in the state of Washington. Seattle is a port city. The Puget Sound has bays large enough to receive ocean faring vessels and yet at the same time, the area is protected from any direct effects of the ocean. This has the greatest benefit during stormy weather.
The book is a memoir. The writer gives a crucial definition early on...
This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind Lesson Plans contain 134 pages of teaching material, including: | <urn:uuid:6b5a1c9c-7dfe-48f5-a89a-470d1e39aa39> | CC-MAIN-2016-18 | http://www.bookrags.com/This_House_of_Sky/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-18/segments/1461863352151.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20160428170912-00136-ip-10-239-7-51.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943211 | 126 | 2.875 | 3 |
Some have called this time a golden age of neuroscience. Advances in many areas, from molecular biology to genetics, have accelerated the pace of discovery far beyond what could be imagined a few decades ago. Behind many of the advances have been new technologies for imaging the brain.
Dr. Reisa Sperling
Colored areas of fMRI scan show AD brain activity
When Dr. Alzheimer first described this devastating brain disease, he relied on findings from a microscopic examination of a patient's brain tissue after she died. From that time until the 1980s, the brain with Alzheimer's disease remained a black box. Scientists could only see the characteristic brain pathology at autopsy. The development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) has transformed neuroscience. Scientists can now see the size and structure of discrete parts of the living brain and can visualize brain function during cognitive tasks like reading or solving math problems. Even more importantly, they can track changes in brain structure and function over time, and compare images with the results of traditional paper-and-pencil tests of memory and cognition. A world of knowledge has opened up, bringing new possibilities for diagnosis, identifying targets for drug therapies, and suggesting methods for monitoring response to interventions.
Excerpted from THE ALZHEIMER'S PROJECT: MOMENTUM IN SCIENCE, published by Public Affairs, www.publicaffairsbooks.com.
In This Section
Momentum in Science: The Supplementary Series
- Understanding and Attacking Alzheimer's 12 min
- How Far We Have Come in Alzheimer's Research 15 min
- Identifying Mild Cognitive Impairment 20 min
- The Role of Genetics in Alzheimer's 12 min
- Advances in Brain Imaging 11 min
- Looking Into the Future of Alzheimer's 6 min
- The Connection Between Insulin and Alzheimer's 21 min
- Inflammation, the Immune System, and Alzheimer's 29 min
- The Benefit of Diet and Exercise in Alzheimer's 16 min
- Cognitive Reserve: What the Religious Orders Study is Revealing about Alzheimer's 20 min
- Searching for an Alzheimer's Cure: The Story of Flurizan 30 min
- The Pulse of Drug Development 15 min
- The DeMoe Family: Early-Onset Alzheimer's Genetics 25 min
- The Nanney/Felts Family: Late-Onset Alzheimer's Genetics 20 min
- The Quest for Biomarkers 17 min
Video: Inside the Brain: Unraveling the Mystery of Alzheimer's Disease
This 4-minute captioned video shows the progression of Alzheimer's disease in the brain.
Inside the Brain: An Interactive Tour
The Brain Tour explains how the brain works and how Alzheimer's affects it.
Alzheimer's Disease: Unraveling the Mystery
This book explains what AD is, describes the main areas in which researchers are working, and highlights new approaches for helping families and friends care for people with AD.
- About The Scientists
Connect with Alzheimer's Research
Find out how you can participate in clinical trials or studies, find a research center, or get up-to-date information at 1-800-438-4380.
The Alzheimer's Association 24/7 Helpline provides reliable information and support to all those who need assistance. Call us toll-free anytime day or night at 1-800-272-3900.
- Create A Tribute
Honor someone you care about and share your stories by contributing to The Tribute Wall on Facebook.
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- Rapid advances in our knowledge about AD have led to the development of promising new drugs and treatment strategies. However, before these new strategies can be used in clinical practice, they must be shown to work in people. Advances in prevention and treatment are only possible thanks to volunteers who participate in clinical trials.
- Among those touched by Alzheimer's (excluding self), nearly one-third provide support as a friend or relative, another 3% provide support as a healthcare professional, and the remaining two-thirds provide no support to the person suffering from Alzheimer's. When support is provided, it most often entails emotional support, followed by care-giving support. While small in comparison, more than one person in ten is providing financial support. Read more. | <urn:uuid:a6eb2633-f382-4af2-afeb-94f8d5771f73> | CC-MAIN-2015-40 | http://www.hbo.com/alzheimers/science-seeing-the-living-brain.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-40/segments/1443737937342.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20151001221857-00098-ip-10-137-6-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.87332 | 904 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Sunday, February 22, 2009
The Wall Street Journal Formula
When writing a feature story, journalist often use the Wall Street Journal Formula. The layout for a feature story utilizing this technique will include:
1) An opening of the story with an anecdotal, narrative, or descriptive lead.
2) A nut graph to follow, explaining the lead
3)The body of the story with supportive details
4)The conclusion including another anecdotal or description of those featured in the story
In the New York Times article "Young Singers Await Their Big Moment at the Met," writer Vincent M. Mallozzi uses the Wall Street Journal Formula to tell the story of budding opera singers auditioning for the chance to perform at the Met.
Mallozzi's lead: "Nadine Sierra and Anthony Ross Costanzo spent Wednesday afternoon in separate rehearsal rooms at the Metropolitan Opera. They are not part of the opera, but they hope to be one day."
The nut graph in first couple of paragraphs explains the lead and gives insight into the personal experience of the two singers.
The body paragraphs explain the audition and selection process of twenty-something singers for their chance of a lifetime. This is the where the story is developed with facts and quotes.
Mallozzi concludes with a quote from Anthony Ross Constanzo, explaining his perspective on the opportunity. | <urn:uuid:0a2a05eb-c4eb-4696-b3f0-ec5121e602d5> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://gjohns3.blogspot.com/2009/02/wall-street-journal-formula.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463613796.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20170530051312-20170530071312-00352.warc.gz | en | 0.915702 | 276 | 2.78125 | 3 |
By André Turmel
What constitutes a 'normal' baby? through the 19th century public wellbeing and fitness and paediatrics performed a number one position within the photo and notion of youngsters. by way of the 20th century psychology had moved to the leading edge, reworking our considering and knowing. André Turmel investigates those changes either from the viewpoint of the medical remark of kids (public hygiene, paediatrics, psychology and schooling) and from a public coverage perspective (child welfare, health and wellbeing coverage, schooling and obligatory schooling). utilizing specified ancient money owed from Britain, the us and France, Turmel stories how ancient sequential improvement and statistical reasoning have resulted in an idea of what constitutes a 'normal' baby and led to a kind of standardization during which we display screen young ones. He exhibits how western society has turn into a child-centred tradition and asks even if we proceed to base parenting and instructing on a view of kids that's now not applicable.
Read or Download A Historical Sociology of Childhood: Developmental Thinking, Categorization and Graphic Visualization PDF
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Additional resources for A Historical Sociology of Childhood: Developmental Thinking, Categorization and Graphic Visualization
11 It emphasizes that socialization through internalization, whether in its psychological (Parsons) or structural (Bourdieu) model, appears a universal process in which the form of socialization12 is overwhelmingly predominant over its content ‘in each and every case’ (James et al. 1998: 25). 9 10 11 12 Ramognino proposes that every general theorization in sociology is either a theory of socialization or of communication. In this perspective, socialization is understood in a very broad sense, not in the rather restrictve common sense of family education and schooling.
I would dispute their claim that Parsons constitutes the very symbol of the ‘hard’ form of socialization theory; Parsons being a functionalist, his version of structure is a rather ‘soft’ one. Bourdieu, on the contrary, coming from the LeviStrauss school of structuralism, embodies the harshest form of the theory. In this respect, one can claim that socialization pertains to a theory of conformity, via its notions of interiorization and inculcation, which is a psychological theory (Moscovici 1988).
Human and nonhuman . . Sacred divisions and distinctions have been tossed into the flames. Fixed points have been pulled down and abandoned. Humanist and political attachments have been torn up’ (Law 1999). Mauss wrote on this particular subject concerning the relations between sociology and psychology, outlining not so much a programme but rather a Children in the collective 29 The figure of the total man, in other words the totality of personhood, is a complex three-dimensional structure in what Mauss calls a whole complexus.
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Stars are brilliant beacons of light shining through the vast cosmic darkness. But just how brilliant they are, and how far they shine across the darkness, varies by a huge amount. In our Milky Way galaxy, for example, the most brilliant stars are several billion times brighter than the faintest ones.
What the faint ones lack in power, though, they make up for with numbers -- they account for most of the galaxy's stars, and most of our stellar neighbors, including the closest one of all. Yet not a single one of them is bright enough to see from Earth with the eye alone.
These stars are known as red dwarfs. Their surfaces are so cool that they shine reddish-orange, like dull cosmic embers.
They range from about half down to less than one-tenth the mass of the Sun. With such little material, the nuclear furnaces in their cores chug along at a leisurely rate, so they produce little energy. In fact, those at the low end of the scale are so feeble that it takes them a year to emit as much energy as the Sun produces in just an hour.
These stars are quite turbulent, though. A red dwarf's surface layers bubble like a boiling tea kettle. All of that motion generates powerful magnetic "storms": dark "starspots" that can cover close to half of the star's surface, and powerful explosions that shower space with X-rays.
Yet red dwarfs should be good targets to search for planets. We'll explain why tomorrow.
Script by Damond Benningfield, Copyright 2011
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Bible verses about
Potter and Clay Analogy
(From Forerunner Commentary)
God makes some people very difficult to deal with. "And the Lord said to Moses, 'When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go'" (Exodus 4:21). It was not mere happenstance that this Pharaoh was particularly hardheaded, nor was he merely reacting to circumstance. God caused him to be intractable. God did a similar thing to Ezekiel before Israel:
Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house. (Ezekiel 3:8-9)
If God will do this for one of His servants, a prophet, why can He not do it to Pharaoh, who, though an enemy of His people, is also serving God's purpose?
Exodus says Pharaoh hardened his heart nineteen times, and of that total, ten say God hardened Pharaoh's heart and nine that Pharaoh hardened it. This shows a balance. Undoubtedly, Pharaoh had a proclivity toward stubbornness, but God helped him along whenever necessary.
This suggests that on occasion God will disregard free moral agency to suit the purpose He is working out. If life and our destiny to be in the Kingdom of God is all a matter of free moral agency, then free moral agency is supreme God, not the Creator God. But it is true, the Potter has power over the clay to do with it as He pleases (Romans 9:21). Ultimately, God's power of choice trumps man's.
This is further underscored on other occasions revealed in the Exodus events. The sovereign God's power, when combined with Pharaoh's God-aided stubbornness, produced a calamity of monumental proportions for Egypt and glory for the eternal God. God says in Exodus 7:3-5:
And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.
He was producing yet more because He makes a similar statement in Exodus 14:4, as Israel was about to be confronted with crossing the Red Sea with Pharaoh's army not far behind: "'Then I will harden Pharaoh's heart, so that he will pursue them; and I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord.' And they did so."
Where was the Egyptians' free moral agency throughout this entire affair? The Egyptians who died—in many cases, violent deaths during the destruction of Egypt's power—had little or no choice in the matter. In addition, they came to comprehend God's power only for a brief period of time, which did them no good and brought Him precious little honor. He may have received honor in the form of terror, and little or none in the form of grateful appreciation, admiration, and obedience from them. God, however, has a longer-range view: The time is coming when they will remember and give true honor to Him in thankfulness.
John W. Ritenbaugh
God's Sovereignty and the Church's Condition (Part Two)
Numbers 23:10 is one of Balaam's prophecies. He is looking out at all of Israel from a height, seeing their vast number, and he has just said that they have been blessed by God.
He then says, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my end be like his!" What about his life between this particular time and his own death? He did not want to live as the righteous but to die as righteous. Put another way, Balaam did not want to live righteously; he only wanted to be considered a righteous man when he died. He wanted "heaven" without behaving heavenly while he was alive. He was perfectly fine with continuing his trade as a sorcerer and even cursing God's people—all he was concerned about was that, at the very end, he could make a death-bed repentance and squeak in between the bars of heaven's gate, so to speak.
Frankly, the religion of Balaam—his doctrine or teaching, his way of life—was the dominant religion of the time, just as Protestantism is dominant today. People then had the same human nature as people do now, and they wanted the best of both worlds. They were willing to do whatever they wanted—even to sin grievously—believing that in the end they would still be saved, because in their eyes what they were doing was not all that bad. They believed God would disregard their behavior. Remember, Balaam later advises the Midianites, "Get the Israelites involved in idolatry and sex with the women of Moab." A truly righteous individual would never even think of causing others to sin. Would God ignore such a thing?
This is the impression one gets from Balaam. He knew what was right, but would not take the responsibility to do it. Yet, he wanted all the rewards and blessings that would come from it.
Another idea that surfaces here is that he thought he could manipulate God. He thought he could bribe Him by giving Him sacrifices, cajoling Him, making a deal with Him—into cursing even His own people. Obviously, it did not work. He did not understand God in the least.
Balaam did not understand what is written in Deuteronomy 10:12-14, which Moses wrote at about this same time. In the New King James, this section is titled "The Essence of the Law."
And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God [Balaam certainly did not fear God—he was willing to negotiate with Him], to walk in all His ways [he did not want to obey Him] and to love Him [certainly his actions did not show that he loved God at all], to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul [Balaam was in it for himself—his heart and soul were not with God], and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good? Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God, also the earth with all that is in it.
Here puny Balaam was trying to match wits with the God of all the universe—and he thought he could win! Notice the next verses:
The LORD delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. (Deuteronomy 10:15-17)
Balaam did not understand this very simple point: In the covenant relationship we have with God, we are the junior partners. Our job is to submit, to obey, to fear and respect Him, and if we do that, everything will work out fine. However, when we step outside that role and try to take God's prerogatives from Him and do things that only He can do, then we start getting into deep trouble. This is where Balaam was—in very dangerous territory. He was trying to negotiate with God as if he were His equal.
He was attempting to impose his will on God, and make God change for him! Is that not basically selfish? Is it not self-interest above what's in God's interest? In a way, it is like saying to God, "You're wrong, and I'm right, so You should do it my way!"—as if we can see things from our vantage point better than God can.
If we try to change God's will on some matter that He has clearly shown us, we are saying, "I am God, not You." We want our will to be followed and not His. There are several verses in the Bible that say, "Who are we before God?" We are the clay—He is the Potter! Balaam had it all backwards.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Balaam and the End-Time Church (Part 1)
What God is doing will add to our awe of Him, and the fear of God is a great gift. There can be nothing negative about adding to our respect of God. Recall that Proverbs 1:7 states, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” However, the fear of God is the also the beginning of wisdom, understanding, joy, peace, and much more because these all flow from God as gifts to us because of our contact with Him after being called.
God set the times for many significant events, for example, when Jesus was born, when the gospel began to be preached, when He would be crucified, how long He was in the grave, and when the Kingdom will be restored. Thus we must learn that the operations and times that God sets are thoroughly reasoned, permanent, and unchangeable. Whatever God does endures forever. He schedules and performs everything at exactly the right time. Thus we must grow in trusting God's timing on everything in our lives. It is that important to our spiritual well-being.
Despite what events working out in our lives might seem like to us from our position as very limited and impatient mortals, God is running a tight ship. We can expand this concept of running a tight ship to envelop the entire period of the past—to all His sovereign operations beginning with Adam and Eve, the calling of Abraham, Jacob having twelve sons, the formation of Israel, and so forth. Everything was done at the right time, and in a way, doing so emphasizes His sovereignty and well-organized purpose.
God wants to impress on those living by faith that He truly wants us to know what He has done and what He is now doing to the degree we can understand. For our good, though, He does not want us second-guessing Him because doing so is not beneficial to living by faith. When we do that, we tend to do foolish things.
Regarding timing within God's purposes as He works with us, we cannot add to or take anything away from the past. The past cannot be changed; it is over. By the same token, we cannot add to or take anything from the future either, as it has not yet occurred and because God has His purposes to work out. What God wants to do when He wants to do it will invariably be done.
No human by his sheer effort can hope to alter the course of things. To seek to do that is evidence of pride. This is a major reason God sets the times even of our trials. He desires to remove every aspect of any argument we might have that might lead us to choose some other way of doing things than His. Resisting Him produces no good fruit.
This leads to the most helpful conclusion: With God in control of time, we, through our experiences, gradually become aware of our sheer helplessness; we cannot manipulate time nor manage the times we live and operate in. This intense understanding of our helplessness helps us grasp more deeply how totally dependent we are on Him to work out His purposes in our lives. The humility produced by this awareness is of tremendous value.
We are involved in the ongoing spiritual creation, and the Creator God is the Potter, fashioning us into His desire. Humility before Him is an absolute necessity. Recall what Jesus says to His disciples in John 15:5, “For without Me you can do nothing.” That is, we can do nothing toward His purpose. Our responsibility is to yield to His purpose. The sovereign God can exercise control of all things in the lives of His children, not just time.
Notice how Jesus illustrates an aspect of this in Matthew 10:29-31:
Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
His two illustrations show how penetrating and complete is God's awareness of what is happening in His creation. Here is the practical point for us: If He is aware of a sparrow falling, and we are exceedingly more important than a mere bird, how can He not be aware of all that is occurring in our lives?
With this understanding, we can appreciate that we can move forward toward God's Kingdom only at the speed He deems is correct for us. This gives us far more reason to learn to be content because the speed that He moves us is perfectly good for us. God does nothing that is not in our best interests.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Ecclesiastes and Christian Living (Part Four): Other Gifts
Some in the church of God today teach that just because a person is part of a certain group, he will escape this wrath. However, the mention of fleeing implies a generality rather than a promise given as an absolute certainty. According to traditions retained from history, all of the apostles except for John suffered violent deaths from persecution.
Are we more deserving of safety than they were? Paul writes in Romans 14:12, "So then, each of us shall give account of himself to God." Revelation 2:23 confirms individual judgment during Christ's evaluation of the Thyatira church, without a doubt part of His church: "I will kill her children with death, and all the church shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works."
We must not allow ourselves to think presumptuously that we deserve to be hidden. God is the Master, and we are slaves bought at a price with Christ's blood. He is the Master Potter, forming and shaping us into the character image of Jesus Christ. If He determines that we need the shaping that Tribulation will bring, then He will not hesitate to set that path before us. If He believes we need to glorify Him before men, He will do the same.
Notice also Daniel 11:32: "Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits." Not only does this show that Christians will undergo intense persecution, but it also shows that they will be doing things to glorify God during that period of testing. God specifically chooses those who know Him to carry out these exploits before men.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Fully Accepting God's Sovereignty, Part Three: The Fruits
The implication is, "My Father has been working from the beginning, and He's continuing to work." What is Their work? It is creating, creation. God is the Potter, we are the clay. He is the One doing the shaping, the molding, the creating. "It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves." He is the One who is continuing the creation that He began and revealed in Genesis 1. He is still working on us! Continuing the pottery metaphor, the Holy Spirit, then, can be compared to the water that the potter uses to bring the clay to the right consistency to enable him to shape it.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Pentecost and the Holy Spirit
He speaks directly to us, stating a principle we must learn to live with. The power to do spiritual works, to overcome, to produce the fruit of God's Spirit, to be used by God in any righteous manner comes from above. Israel's journey through the wilderness illustrates this. Every step of the way was physically empowered by the manna and water God provided.
Understanding God's hand in our preparation for the Kingdom of God is also advanced by remembering that we are the clay sculpture our Creator is molding and shaping (Isaiah 64:8). Does any work of art—any painting, carving, drawing, tapestry, work of literature, or fine meal for that matter—have inherent power to shape itself?
The natural man, even apart from God's purpose, is a magnificent work of art. David writes in Psalm 139:14, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Yet, when we have put on incorruption and immortality, and have inherited the Kingdom of God, we will be the most magnificent masterpieces there are, far superior to what we are now. To mold and shape us into God's image requires love, wisdom, and multiple other powers far beyond anything any person—even Jesus as a human being—has.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Power Belongs to God (Part Two)
Since God's calling is totally unilateral, and since no one can resist His will, why does He find fault in people?
His answer is that God can do whatever He pleases with His creation (verses 20-26). He is the Potter, and the clay cannot legitimately question the Potter's methods or purposes (see Isaiah 29:16; Jeremiah 18:1-11). He, as sovereign ruler over His creation, is under no obligation to tell us why he chooses as he does.
The warp-woof metaphor of Leviticus 13:47-59, the law dealing with leprosy in cloth, reinforces Paul's conclusion. A priest is to examine a cloth thought to be leprous, but make no decision about the disposition of the garment for seven days, during which time it is to remain isolated, separated from the people of Israel (verse 50). After the seven days, He reexamines the suspect garment (verse 51). If the leprosy has spread, "whether warp or woof, . . . it shall be burned in the fire" (verse 52). If the leprosy has not spread yet is still present, the garment is to be washed and isolated for yet another seven days (verses 53-54). If the leprosy has not changed its color after this second week, the garment is to be burned, even though the plague has not spread (verse 55). If the plague has disappeared, then the garment is clean and fit for use after it has been washed a second time (verse 58).
What an example of God's mercy, patience, and long-suffering! He extends mercy on mercy—to a piece of cloth! How much more grace does God show us, the warp and woof of His garment! How much more has He given the Gentiles in offering them spiritual salvation now! How much more will he exhibit when He calls whole nations of Gentiles—when the time is right!
The Mixed Multitude
It is completely the sovereign God's choice whom He assigns to have the faith to be saved. Those He assigns to have faith, He calls. We have nothing to brag about before God or man regarding our position.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Sovereignty of God: Part Seven
1 Corinthians 15:57-58
"Victory" is from the same Greek root as the word translated "overcomes" so many times in Revelation 2 and 3. Overcoming is being victorious over the pull of human nature against God in the self, Satan, and this world that tries to keep us from entering God's Kingdom.
Paul also exhorts us to be "always abounding in the work of the Lord." His work is creating. Then, by using the words "your labor," the apostle draws our attention to our responsibilities. Our labor is whatever energies and sacrifices it takes to yield to the Lord so He can do His work. Scripture refers to God several times as the Potter, and we are the clay He is shaping. The difference between us and earthy clay is that the clay God is working is alive—having a mind and will of its own, it can choose to resist or yield.
Following initial repentance, finding the motivation to use our faith to yield to Him in labor, not just agreeing mentally, is perhaps most important of all. Real living faith motivates conduct in agreement with God's purpose. Clearly, God's purpose is that we grow or change to become as much like Him in this life as time allows.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Elements of Motivation (Part Three): Hope
Do we get the significance of the truth that He works all things in our lives too, according to the counsel of His will? This truth does not apply to just the "big" things of His overall purpose but even to us! Do we really perceive our relationship to Him as being one of the Potter to the clay?
As He formed and shaped Adam and Eve, He is forming and shaping us, and it is our responsibility to accept and submit. Do we live our lives as though He truly is omnipotent, omniscient, and individually aware of us? Do we conduct our lives in such a manner that we fully understand that this awesome Being is actively and personally involved in what we do?
By viewing Him as Potter, do we grasp that He has every right to mold the clay into whatever form or state and make whatever use of it as He chooses? He can fashion from the same lump one person to honor and another to dishonor. He can determine our sex, race, ethnicity, level of wealth, or location. He is under no law or rule outside of His own nature and purpose. He is a law unto Himself, under no obligation to give an account of His actions to anybody else. He exercises His power as, where, and when He wills.
He is not merely overseeing our lives but actively participating in them, and He is ultimately responsible for what happens in them just as much as those national and worldwide occurrences that we hear in the news. The sovereignty of the Bible's God is absolute, irresistible, and infinite. Our trust is to be in Him.
God's purpose and plan has been and is being carried out as He purposed, and nobody can turn Him aside. Now His purpose and plan has reached out to include us just as He predestined when He declared the end from the beginning. Have we caught the vision?
Are we willing to completely turn our lives over to this Being who does not always act in a way that is pleasant to us? God immediately struck Aaron's sons and Uzzah dead, but He has allowed countless others who perhaps did far worse things to live long and seemingly full lives.
God permitted Methuselah to live almost a thousand years. He chose to endow Samson with strength as no other person ever had. Jesus went to the pool of Siloam and chose one man to heal, paying no attention to the others. Why did He allow the Morgans, Carnegies, Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, and many others to amass incredible wealth, while allowing perhaps billions of people around the world barely to scrape by in miserable poverty?
When the Israelites entered the Promised Land, the city of Jericho and its citizens stood barring their progress. God brought the walls down, and the city's defenses collapsed—the one and only time God did such a thing. Every other city had to be conquered by warfare, risking Israelite lives to take them.
Clearly, He treats and responds to individuals according to the counsel of His own mind, and He answers to no one. He does this even in the lives of His children. The apostle John lived to be around one hundred years old, yet Stephen was stoned to death, Peter crucified, and Paul beheaded.
Considering the witnesses of those great servants, what right do we have to complain about the discomforts He creates for us to endure and grow within? He could rescue everybody in every uncomfortable circumstance, but He does not. Have we fully accepted that He may choose difficult things for us?
John W. Ritenbaugh
Fully Accepting God's Sovereignty (Part One)
One way to begin taming our tongues is to speak in meekness. Meekness is not weakness. It is knowing at all times where we stand with God, fully realizing who He is and the nature of His power in contrast to ourselves, His creation. Joshua cried out in confidence for the army of Israel to go forward; His confidence was not in himself or his leadership but totally in his awareness of God's purpose in his life, God's law to live by, and God's sovereignty over him. He was, after all, clay in the Potter's hands. If we keep this in mind, we will never have cause to feel better, more righteous, more successful, or more honorable than another.
Meekness is the ability to esteem others better than ourselves and to allow God to use us as He wills. II Timothy 2:20 shows us that God will honor whom He will. To seek honor for ourselves or to feel worthy of honor is a dead end, and it will taint how we communicate to others. We will naturally look down on them, disrespect them, overlook them, and criticize them.
Test: If we have experienced dishonor, perhaps we need to look closely to see where we have dishonored others. We all stand guilty as charged.
Are You Sharp-Tongued? (Part Two)
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Frank Gregorio's astronomy course is the most popular science elective at Osburn Park High School, in Manassas, Virginia. Why does the class rates so high on the coolness meter? Gregorio eschews traditional lectures and textbooks. Instead, he turns off the lights in the computer room and turns on some music, setting the stage for students to traverse space right from their desktops via a free software program called Celestia.
Gregorio has created comprehensive activities that guide students through Celestia's three-dimensional simulated universe, letting them observe the life cycle of stars, hurtle into the future to see Mars terraformed and the Sun swell, and travel four billion years back in time to witness the formation of the moon -- all at their own pace.
Celestia enables Gregorio to transform his class "from a room with a teacher, some videos, and a blackboard into a high tech space-simulation experience far more exciting than anything these kids have ever experienced in a school," he says. The program is one of several free and commercial virtual telescopes, planetariums, and space-simulation applications that place the wonders of the universe at the fingertips of today's tech-savvy kids.
Have PC, Will Travel
Proponents say these virtual programs have tremendous potential as teaching tools, bringing immersive, personalized, and sometimes interactive astronomy to science classrooms. At a time when technology sometimes gets a bad reputation for increasingly separating young people from nature and science, these tools make the far reaches of the universe easily accessible, enabling a jaunt to the Eta Carinae Nebula, say, or to Jupiter and its four major moons with a click of a mouse.
Developers and educators who use these programs hope they will inspire a new generation of Neil Armstrongs, students motivated by awe and curiosity to not only learn about space but also pursue careers in science.
"When you see that awestruck look on their faces, you know you've gotten them interested in science," notes Frank Summers, an outreach astronomer with the Space Telescope Science Institute, the Hubble Space Telescope's science operations center. Summers, who visits classrooms as part of the institute's outreach, has relied on virtual tools to give kindergartners and third graders an accurate mental model of the solar system. "You can use the beautiful images to draw them in, and then you can teach them about the science, chemistry, physics, and dynamic that is going on behind these beautiful pictures," he explains.
Lisa Dettloff, a science specialist at the Nueva School, a private K-8 school in Hillsborough, California, says the value of these programs lies in their ability to spark students' enthusiasm and satisfy their passion for exploration.
With her third and fourth graders, Dettloff has been testing WorldWide Telescope, a Microsoft beta program that seamlessly stitches a virtual universe together from images taken by Earth- and space-based telescopes. First, she asked students to write down where they would go if they could explore anywhere in the universe. Black holes proved popular, and students also brought up comets, planets, and other galaxies. Then, Dettloff fired up WorldWide Telescope on a projector and let them have their wishes -- virtually, at least.
WorldWide Telescope users can take tours narrated by astronomers and educators from major universities and planetariums, or they can zoom and pan around the night sky on their own. Dettloff chose the latter, asking students to point out anything that drew their attention. "My philosophy of teaching is to really start out with questions rather than just give them information," she explains. One student noticed a planetary nebula with concentric rings that moved outward. Another noted an increased density of stars in a certain area.
Students are also using the program to create their own tour. They narrate what they've observed on the tour via audio on a digital recorder. Dettloff has found that students are excited to share their research with others and to know what they've learned "will be useful for someone and is going somewhere."
"It's like having your own personal astronomer or having your own personal planetarium," says Roy R. Gould, an education analyst at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, of WorldWide Telescope. "It's an experience, as opposed to just information."
Such computerized astronomy experiences can also explain concepts in a way that images and words in textbooks cannot. "How would you illustrate Earth's tilt using a textbook? It's not effective," argues Mike Goodman, vice president of global education sales at Imaginova, which produces a desktop planetarium program called Starry Night. Goodman suggests that a simulation using real images of Earth going around the Sun and showing changes in time -- like that available in Starry Night -- is a better illustration of why it gets warm in the summer and cold in the winter.
Teacher Frank Gregorio also believes that exploring a simulated universe easily beats reading in a textbook. "Using Celestia in a guided way via scripts or written activity documents is the absolute best way to stimulate kids today, and it gives them a universe not only to learn about but also to experience," he states.
Bilen Mesfin is a freelance writer based in Oakland, California.
Apollo 2.0: Tools for Virtual Space Travel
Desktop Programs for Touring the Universe
- Celestia, an open-source, three-dimensional space-simulation program that includes downloadable tours; free
- Google Sky, a space version of the popular mapping application Google Earth; free
- Heavens Above, a site dedicated to observing and tracking satellites orbiting the Earth; free
- RedShift, virtual planetarium software; $20
- Slooh, a live online observatory; $49 per year for an unlimited teacher membership; bulk memberships for students also available
- SpaceWander, a simple virtual space trip; free
- Starry Night, desktop planetarium; $200 for high school and middle school versions and $130 for the elementary school version
- Stellarium, an open-source desktop planetarium; free
- Carina Software's Voyager and SkyGazer (introductory version), desktop planetariums available as "lab packs" for educators; starting at $320 for Voyager and $160 for SkyGazer
- Microsoft Research's WorldWide Telescope, a virtual space observatory; free
- The Celestia Motherlode, downloadable educational activities for Celestia, created by Frank Gregorio
- Life Cycle of Stars with Slooh Online Observatory
- Virtual Venus: Observing Venus Using Slooh Remote Telescopes in the Classroom
What You Need to Get Started
- Know-how: Most programs are fairly easy to use, but you may want to take advantage of training offered for the commercial applications. Alternatively, free programs that offer tours or accompanying activities, such as WorldWide Telescope, can be less daunting.
- Hardware: A full class set of fairly capable computers is also ideal for these virtual space journeys. Google has made its astronomy application, Sky, available for viewing on a Web browser, but most of the others need to be downloaded and installed, requiring open disk space and memory. Celestia requires a level of video processing that some computers might not have. | <urn:uuid:2f9a93e2-c1a8-46d1-95bd-3a472bec637a> | CC-MAIN-2021-49 | https://www.edutopia.org/virtual-astronomy-simulation-technology | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-49/segments/1637964359093.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20211201052655-20211201082655-00276.warc.gz | en | 0.929739 | 1,507 | 3.453125 | 3 |
LAKETOWN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — The sand on the shores of Lake Michigan are typically tan. That’s why a strange pinkish-purple stretch caught one viewer’s eye when she saw it on Wednesday on the shores near Saugatuck.
A strip of black and purple sand lined the shore.
The secret to the sand has nothing to do with a chemical change or a type of algae. Instead, the sand is a result of something we’ve seen a lot of lately: erosion.
The purple flakes are made of garnet, which is a deep purple. Most of the Great Lakes basin is composed of sandstone, which is tan. This gives our sand beaches their tan hue. However, there are strips of garnet that are embedded within the sandstone all over the Great Lakes.
When one of these layers is eroded, flakes of garnet enter the lake and can be pushed up on shore, making the purple sand. Often, this can create strips of black sand, too, where darker deposits are eroded and thrown on shore.
Occasionally, the purple sand mixes with the tan sand to make for a “pink” look. That is exactly what happened in 2017 at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
Since we are home to a living lakeshore, these strips of purple won’t stick around forever, so enjoy them when you find them peppered on one of your favorite beaches on our Great Lake. | <urn:uuid:4293ec8d-80d6-4eea-8741-a6fddc4a15b4> | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | https://michigandailynews.com/2020/05/15/ask-ellen-why-is-this-sand-purple/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107911229.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20201030182757-20201030212757-00534.warc.gz | en | 0.936211 | 313 | 2.96875 | 3 |
The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope has captured a signal emanating from a cosmic event in a galaxy far away, just four days into becoming operational.
Known as fast radio bursts (FRBs), the signals are short, sharp spikes of radio waves that last a few milliseconds.
Scientists are still pondering what causes FRBs, but believe they stem from powerful events that took place billions of lightyears away from Earth.
Drs Keith Bannister and Jean-Pierre Macquart from Curtin University found the FRB as part of the commensal real-time ASKAP fast transients survey project, using just eight of the radio telescope's 36 dishes.
Termed FRB170107, the signal comes from the edge of the star constellation Leo. The researchers estimate it has travelled through space for six billion years before hitting the ASKAP telescope in West Australia at the speed of light.
The FRB was extremely bright, the researchers noted, and combined with the distance it travelled, the energy involved would be enormous, making the phenomenon harder to explain.
Bannister's team took an unusual approach to detecting FRBs, pointing the eight ASKAP radio telescope dishes in slightly different directions, like the segments of a fly's eye.
"We turned the telescope into the Sauron of space – the all-seeing eye," Dr Bannister said.
With the eight dishes, ASKAP can see 240 square degrees at the same time, covering an area about a thousand times the size of the moon.
Dr Bannister said he expects to find a new FRB every second day with 12 ASKAP dishes active.
ASKAP is operated by the CSIRO and is located at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in the mid-west region of Western Australia. | <urn:uuid:a5cbea21-6ec3-45b9-8923-c30be524c5b4> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://www.itnews.com.au/news/australian-ska-telescope-finds-ancient-radio-signal-462707 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662561747.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20220523194013-20220523224013-00746.warc.gz | en | 0.941862 | 374 | 3.96875 | 4 |
Externally Dispersed Interferometry For Terrestrial Exoplanet Detection
Terrestrial exoplanets are observationally challenging to detect and characterize. Compared to gas giant exoplanets, terrestrial exoplanets introduce significantly smaller radial velocity signals and transit depths on their host stars. The signals are larger for terrestrial exoplanets orbiting M-dwarf stars, which have lower masses and radii than Sun-like F, G and K-type stars, and dominate stellar populations by number. Detecting exoplanets around M dwarfs is itself difficult because of their lower luminosities and lower flux at visible wavelengths, where most radial velocity and transit exoplanet surveys operate. I present here the motivation, development and results from a radial velocity program conducted on M dwarfs using near-infrared wavelengths, where M dwarf spectra peak in flux. To achieve high radial-velocity precision, I have used a technique called externally dispersed interferometry. It involves the combination of an interferometer and a moderate-resolution spectrograph on the 200 inch (5.1 m) Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory. The TripleSpec Exoplanet Discovery Instrument, or TEDI, is the first such instrument to operate at nearinfrared wavelengths. Our results indicate that contamination by narrow absorption lines introduced by the Earth's atmosphere limit radial velocity performance to that which can detect gas giant planets. I have conducted a survey of nearby M dwarfs, and can rule out with 3[sigma] confidence the presence of short-period gas giant planets in circular orbits around a few nearby M dwarfs. The results of this experiment direct future extrasolar planet instrumentation toward spectral regions with little telluric contamination and with higher resolution, to detect terrestrial exoplanets orbiting M dwarfs.
Extrasolar Planets; Astronomical Instrumentation; Data Analysis and Techniques
Squyres, Steven Weldon; Cordes, James Martin; Herter, Terry Lee; Lovelace, Richard V E
Ph. D., Astronomy
Doctor of Philosophy
dissertation or thesis | <urn:uuid:e32f15ab-8407-486b-8da9-8b43919c175a> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/29454 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323585537.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20211023002852-20211023032852-00280.warc.gz | en | 0.876269 | 423 | 3.078125 | 3 |
At one intersection of technology and philosophy stands that old chestnut: the trolley problem.
Originally introduced as a theoretical dilemma some 40 years ago, the trolley problem describes a runaway trolley car speeding along the tracks and headed towards five innocent bystanders. As an observer, you are conveniently located next to a lever which would enable you to divert the trolley onto a different track where only one person is a risk. So what do you do?
When introduced, this problem was simply a hypothetical thought experiment to illustrate an ethical dilemma. But today we live in a world of self-driving cars, and suddenly the trolley problem has become a real problem.
“If we have self-driving cars, that ‘trolley’ decision has to be made because one day that car might encounter exactly that situation,” says Ian Gold, BA’84, MA’87, Professor of Philosophy and Psychiatry at McGill. “Who gets to make that decision? Is it made in the factory by General Motors, or is it made by the person who owns the car or someone else? That’s not a philosopher’s fantasy question, that’s a real question that has to be addressed right now.”
The trolley problem is just one illustration of the important philosophical questions raised by the rapid development of technology and artificial intelligence. Other examples abound from racial biases in facial recognition software, algorithms to identify hate speech on social media platforms and issues of privacy and data protection for users of technology.
“I derive many benefits by being able to Google something,” says Gold. “But what am I prepared to put up with to get those benefits? That’s a decision we have to make as a society. The problem is that right now there isn’t enough community discussion about the central issues.”
Thanks to a $2-million gift from the Jarislowsky Foundation, McGill will establish a Chair in McGill’s Department of Philosophy to undertake ground-breaking research and scholarship addressing these kinds of pressing philosophical questions. The timely donation will be matched by funds from McGill in order to endow the Chair’s total cost of $4 million.
The new Chair, to be named the Stephen Jarislowsky Chair in Technology and Human Nature, will bring together a deep understanding of new technology along with a strong philosophical perspective on the many social, ethical and political issues inherent in the development of AI and other technologies, It will also examine the impact of technology on individuals – young and old alike – and how it influences development at every stage of their lives.
While the Chair will be based in the Department of Philosophy, it will promote collaboration with researchers and students from across the University, as well as with the wider Montreal technology community. In particular, the Chair will work closely with the Yan P. Lin Centre for Freedom and Global Orders in the Ancient and Modern Worlds, which has established itself as a locus for studying social structures, social transformations, and ideas about social values from across eras and in regions around the world.
“The Lin Centre is looking forward to working with the Chair and providing the institutional infrastructure and apparatus that will allow collaboration across departments and faculties,” says Jacob Levy, Director of the Lin Centre and Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory. “We would like to see McGill become a place where scholars who want real training on the technological side of things and on the philosophical or other liberal arts side of things could get those together.”
The objective of the Chair is not to vilify technology. Technological advances are not intrinsically good or bad, but the use of technology can certainly exert a positive or negative impact on our lives. Gold maintains that the only way to get what we truly want from technology is to examine it carefully through a philosophical lens – the core challenge for the new Chair.
“It’s not a job that a technology person can do because they haven’t necessarily considered the philosophical or ethical or social implications,” explains Gold, who is a member of the Chair search committee. “By the same token, an ethicist or political scientist or sociologist can’t really tackle the job unless they understand how the technology works.”
“There is an urgent need for all of us to consider the implications of technology for individuals and society,” says Jarislowsky Foundation founder Stephen Jarislowsky, LLD’08, one of Canada’s foremost philanthropists and business leaders. His eponymous Foundation has endowed research and academia in fields ranging from governance, democracy and public sector management to arts and medicine, including the Stephen Jarislowsky Chair in Urology at McGill’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. “I am pleased to have this opportunity to support McGill’s work in making a major contribution to teaching and research in this field.”
Key objectives of the Chair will be to mentor students, work with the thriving computer technology industry in Montreal, and also engage the community through public events and outreach initiatives, articulating key issues and questions about the impact of technology.
“This generous gift from the Jarislowsky Foundation puts McGill in the exciting position to recruit a world-class scholar to interrogate the relationship between technology and human nature,” says Hasana Sharp, Associate Professor and Chair of McGill’s Department of Philosophy. “This is an example of how our University is actively addressing some of the most timely and important questions facing us as individuals, as a community and as a society.”
The post Tackling the impact of technology on human nature and society appeared first on McGill Reporter.
Article courtesy of The McGill Reporter
Article courtesy of The McGill Reporter | <urn:uuid:496d1892-5096-4fcd-9ad4-e0b4bffbed2f> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://community.mcgill.ca/tackling-the-impact-of-technology-on-human-nature-and-society/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439737225.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20200807202502-20200807232502-00417.warc.gz | en | 0.942448 | 1,180 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Most people are aware of the many outdoor environmental pollutants. However, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average person spends 90 percent of their time indoors – and time indoors means exposure to indoor pollutants that impact the air quality. Common indoor pollutants can lead to headaches, dizziness, fatigue, and irritate your eyes, throat, and nose. More serious effects include respiratory conditions, cancer and heart disease.
Using eco-friendly materials can greatly improve indoor air quality. “As a designer who specializes in sustainable design, I define eco-friendly as not only healthy for the environment but also healthy for the client,” explains Joan Kaufman, an interior designer and President of Interior Planning & Design in Naperville, IL. | <urn:uuid:6c3cbbc7-9caa-4bbc-a7ad-e724de9fc370> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://www.chooseenergy.com/blog/eco-friendly-materials-indoor-air-quality/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038089289.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20210416191341-20210416221341-00285.warc.gz | en | 0.940613 | 148 | 3 | 3 |
This training is a type of aerobic-anaerobic training, which consists of a series of different exercises for the whole of body.
It represents a combination of power training, plyometric exercises and exercises for improving cardiovascular system.
It starts with warming up whole body, power exercises follow as well as a main part of training lasting 25-30 minutes. This part entails a maximum number of reps of one or more exercises in a certain period of time. Depending on physical ability of people who train, rest period is either reduced or increased. Afterwards, exercises strengthening core muscles (stomach and lower back) are done on the floor. Finally, stretching muscles, which lasts 10 minutes, is inevitable.
Increasing muscle mass, speed, agility, balance, coordination and precision. | <urn:uuid:34e73f9e-5b9c-4fb0-8bef-320b46c41c95> | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | https://kocovic.rs/en/program/cross-training/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593657143354.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20200713064946-20200713094946-00231.warc.gz | en | 0.940974 | 157 | 2.609375 | 3 |
By Twyla Ramos
Wisdom from Veterinarians – Vaccinations for Pets, Adverse Reactions, and Reformed Vaccine Schedules
Recently I came across several articles and books about adverse reactions to vaccinations among animals such as dogs, cats, horses and cattle. The harm caused by over-vaccination is referred to as "vaccinosis". Interestingly, pet owners and veterinarians report that vaccine-injured animals suffer from many of the same health conditions as people with autism, including inflammatory bowel disorders, seizures, encephalitis, auto-immune issues, hypothyroidism, eczema, susceptibility to infections, chronic ear infections, and behavioral issues.
Some people believe that autism is caused by defective genes which impair the brain. If you ask such a person, "But what about the rest of the body – what about the medical conditions which often affect people with autism, such as disorders of the immune system and digestion and biochemistry?" the response may be that:
• These health conditions are independent of autism, and simply happen to occur in some autistic people, but people without autism also may have these conditions too, or
• Perhaps the genes which affect the brain also affect other organs and systems in the body.
But, this information on vaccine reactions in animals adds to the plausibility of autism being vaccine induced, because there is so much similarity between the adverse vaccine reactions of pets and the conditions which frequently co-occur with autism.
Over the past few decades there has been considerable controversy among veterinarians regarding vaccinations. Back in the 1960's, cats and dogs received very few vaccinations. But (as with humans) more and more vaccines were developed for various diseases. Since nobody was sure how long the immunity from these vaccines lasted, and since vaccines were assumed to be harmless, it became standard protocol to vaccinate dogs and cats annually for all diseases. An increasing number of veterinarians and pet owners began to report adverse reactions from this intensive vaccine schedule, for example:
Dr. Chrissie Mason B.R.C.P., Ph.D. - "I am becoming seriously concerned at the increase in the cases of auto-immune disease, and the Canine/Feline vaccination program which I consider to be inextricably linked. Certainly, I do not stand alone in holding these views, as a number of Orthodox Veterinary Practitioners have expressed their concern over the incidence of certain types of illness suddenly appearing after a vaccination has been administered. Often these are severe skin disorders, gastrointestinal disturbances, sickness and colitis symptoms, all of which have been observed and recorded. (1)
Dr. Pat Bradley, DVM - "In a general and frightening context, I see the overall health and longevity of animals deteriorating. The bodies of most animals have a tremendous capacity to detoxify poisons, but they do have a limit. I think we often exceed that limit and overwhelm the body's immune system function with toxins from vaccines. The most common problems I see that are directly related to vaccines on a day to day basis are ear or skin conditions, such as chronic discharges and itching. I also see behavior problems such as fearfulness or aggression. Often guardians will report that these begin shortly after vaccination and are exacerbated with every vaccine." (1)
Dr. Charles E Loops DVM - "The first thing that must change with routine vaccinations is the myth that vaccines are not harmful. Veterinarians and animal guardians have to come to realize that they are not protecting animals from disease by annual vaccinations, but in fact, are destroying the health and immune systems of these same animals they love and care for... Vaccinations represent a major assault on the body's immune system.... Vaccine induced chronic diseases range from life-threatening conditions such as auto-immune crises to conditions destroying the quality of life of an animal as in chronic skin allergies." (1)
Dr. W. Jean Dodds, DVM - "The challenge to produce effective and safe vaccines for the prevalent infectious diseases of humans and animals has become increasingly difficult. In veterinary medicine, evidence implicating vaccines in triggering immune-mediated and other chronic disorders (vaccinosis) is compelling. While some of these problems have been traced to contaminated or poorly attenuated batches of vaccine that revert to virulence, others apparently reflect the host's genetic predisposition to react adversely upon receiving the single (monovalent) or multiple antigen "combo" (polyvalent) products given routinely to animals. Animals of certain susceptible breeds or families appear to be at increased risk for severe and lingering adverse reactions to vaccines. The onset of adverse reactions to conventional vaccinations… can be an immediate hypersensitivity or anaphylactic reaction, or can occur acutely (24-48 hours afterwards), or later on (10-45 days) in a delayed type immune response often caused by immunecomplex formation." (2)
"Vaccination also can overwhelm the immunocompromised or even healthy host that is repeatedly challenged with other environmental stimuli and is genetically predisposed to react adversely upon viral exposure. The recently weaned young puppy or kitten entering a new environment is at greater risk here, as its relatively immature immune system can be temporarily or more permanently harmed. Consequences in later life may be the increased susceptibility to chronic debilitating diseases." (2)
Dr. Richard Pitcairn, DVM, PhD – "For much of my professional career, I perceived vaccines as both beneficial and harmless. I never considered that they could contribute in any way to more subtle and persistent health problems. Yet, the casual practice of yearly vaccinations is now seen by some veterinarians, myself included, as a significant contributor to the striking increase of chronic diseases observed during recent decades… It is difficult for me to understand how such a cavalier attitude could have existed among both veterinarians and the public. We all know that novel biological techniques can have unforeseen consequences and, indeed, this seems to be a common outcome of new medical procedures… This is not to say that every animal becomes ill after vaccinations. This is clearly not so. However, there are some animals – probably predisposed because of a weak immune system – that cannot handle certain vaccines and become chronically ill as a result of their use… Over the years, vaccines have also become more complex. There are more of them used, many different types, and each may contain numerous viruses and germs – five, six, or more. The immune systems of some animals may become confused by all this information… It is hardly a natural process for five or six disease agents to end up in an animal's bloodstream simultaneously, but this is what happens when a vaccine injection is given. Too much, too fast." (3)
Because of the work of veterinarians such as Dr. Dobbs, a modified, less frequent schedule has now been adopted by the American Animal Hospital Association, the American Colleges of Veterinary Internal Medicine, Veterinary Microbiology and the American Association of Veterinary Immunologists. This new schedule divides vaccines into "core" (for common serious diseases), "non-core" (less common and/or less serious) and "not recommended". Instead of giving annual boosters, titers are tested to see whether an animal is already immune to a disease, before deciding whether a booster is necessary.
The American Animal Hospital Association states: "Recently, studies have shown that vaccines protect dogs for longer than previously believed... In addition, there is increased awareness and concern that vaccination is not as harmless a procedure as once thought. These factors have led to a growing number of veterinarians who recommend reduced frequency of vaccinations while at the same time tailoring vaccine recommendations to specific risk situations... One of AAHA's key recommendations is that all dogs are different — and thus vaccine decisions should be made on an individual basis for each dog. Issues to consider include the age, breed, health status, environment, lifestyle, and travel habits of the dog... You can work with your veterinarian to tailor an immunization program that best protects your dog based on his risk and lifestyle factors." (4)
Dr. W. Jean Dodds, DVM makes the following recommendations: "Practitioners should be encouraged during the initial visit with a new puppy owner or breeder to review current information about the breed's known congenital and heritable traits. For those breeds at increased risk, the potential for adverse reactions to routine vaccinations should be discussed as part of this wellness program… As a minimum, if we are unaware of the particular concern expressed, we can research the matter or ask the client for any relevant scientific or medical documentation. The accumulated evidence indicates that vaccination protocols should no longer be considered as a 'one size fits all' program.
"For these special cases, appropriate alternatives to current vaccine practices include: measuring serum antibody titers; avoidance of unnecessary vaccines or over vaccinating; using caution in vaccinating sick, very old, debilitated, or febrile individuals; and tailoring a specific minimal vaccination protocol for dogs of breeds or families known to be at increased risk for adverse reactions. Considerations include starting the vaccination series later…when the immune system is more able to handle antigenic challenge; alerting the caregiver to pay particular attention to the puppy's behavior and overall health after the second or subsequent boosters; and avoiding revaccination of individuals already experiencing a significant adverse event. Littermates of affected puppies should be closely monitored after receiving additional vaccines in a puppy series, as they, too, are at higher risk. Altering the puppy vaccination protocol… is also advisable.
"Following these recommendations may be a prudent way for our profession to balance the need for individual patient disease prevention with the age-old physician's adage, forwarded by Hippocrates, of 'to help, or at least do no harm.'" (5)
It is wonderful that veterinarians and pet owners have been able to bring about change. Evidently they are not facing such huge forces against change such as the CDC; never-the-less it has not been easy. Dr. Dodds said in an email to me, "Colleagues like Dr. Ron Schultz at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine and I have fought the establishment on the issues of over-vaccinating animals for more than 30 years. Now, at last, people are listening and we no longer need to find space to fit more arrows in our backs! Our latest project is www.rabieschallengefund.org." This project is a study to determine how long rabies immunity lasts after a vaccine. Rabies is the one vaccine mandated in many states, often annually, and it can have severe side effects.
I did not come across any examples of dogs or cats losing speech after receiving vaccines, since they do not speak before vaccines either (at least not in English, except in fictional places such as Narnia). But I did find some accounts such as the following by Catherine J. M. Diodati:
"Waylon, a brindle Great Dane, received his second vaccinations series at 3 ½ months of age, a combined booster plus rabies vaccines. Waylon immediately became excessively sleepy, refused to eat, and developed a high temperature. Other changes, however, did not become evident until the initial reactions subsided. Prior to vaccination, Waylon was 'a loving little pup who would gaze into [your] eyes and just cuddle and snuggle.' After vaccination, his eyes had a glazed look, he no longer made eye contact, and would not tolerate physical contact. Much like the vaccine-induced autism witnessed in children, it was difficult to hold Waylon's attention or to distract him away from repetitive or destructive behaviors. He began destroying his bedding and a stuffed doll that he used to carry everywhere, cuddle with, and treat gently. He also started running nonstop until his owner could bribe him to come into the house; then he would dash about in the house as well. Fortunately, Waylon has improved considerably with the help of a good homeopathic protocol." (3)
I cannot resist quoting Catherine J. M. Diodati some more: "We have been paying well-intentioned people to administer toxic and carcinogenic substances to our pets – sometimes damaging or killing them – hoping to prevent diseases which may never occur. Sadly, more ignorance than knowledge surrounds vaccination… We are needlessly over-vaccinating them, repeatedly exposing our canines and felines to multiple pathogens and dangerous chemicals… Many veterinarians… refuse to use certain vaccines because the disease in question is either so innocuous or rare that the risks associated with vaccination outweigh any promised benefits. They understand that repeatedly injecting unnecessary vaccines is harming their animal clients. Some veterinarians have designed reduced vaccination schedules, using only a few monovalent (single) vaccines and insisting on an interval of weeks between administering others. They have also learned that vaccination must be avoided in sick animals – no matter how mild the illness appears – and in animals who are otherwise stressed, on medication, or have received surgery recently…
"We make the best decisions we can with the information we have. For far too long, accurate vaccine information has not reached our hands, and our pets are paying dearly. Many veterinary vaccines are either safe or effective; more often they are neither. Would you knowingly choose to vaccinate your dog against coronavirus if you knew that the disease is extremely rare, very mild, and that the vaccine elicited questionable immunity yet causes a variety of serious adverse events, including meningitis and death? Would you knowingly vaccinate your indoor cat, who will not be exposed to many diseases with vaccines known to cause cancer? Of course not. Nevertheless, we have been making vaccination decisions with limited access to accurate information." (3)
Would that those involved in vaccinating humans would pay attention to the wisdom developing among these two-legged friends of our four-legged friends.
(2) "Changing Vaccine Protocols" by W. Jean Dodds, DVM – reprinted at www.bassetnet.com/Info/VaccineIssuesUpdate.pdf
(3) Vaccine Guide for Dogs & Cats – Catherine J.M. Kiodati, MA, Forward by Richard Pitcairn, DVM, PhD (pgs 9 – 11, 13 & 18)
(4) www.healthypet.com/library_view.aspx?ID=196&sid=1 Also see www.wpxi.com/family/2045487/detail.html for more on this topic.
(5) "Vaccination Protocols for Dogs Predisposed to Vaccine Reactions" by W. Jean Dodds, DVM, Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association, May 1, 2001 – reprinted at www.dogsadversereactions.com/vaccinePredisposed.html
Twyla Ramos is the mother of three, wife of one, employee of a corporation, and board member of the Foothill Autism Alliance. | <urn:uuid:140c2e03-a6b3-4e40-9761-fe575c726dca> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/05/veterinarian-wi.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257824185.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071024-00176-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957626 | 3,055 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Hey, how’s your biotin? What? No it’s not an organic metal, maybe you call it B7? You’re probably fine, but have you been depressed, lethargic or losing your hair lately? Biotin is pretty important; it’s necessary for metabolism within our cells, so I make sure I never leave home without it. It’s rare for someone to have a biotin deficiency, but if you want to know your levels, give me a drop of your blood, and I’ll have an answer from you in 10 minutes. How? Oh just my self-powered integrated microfluidic blood analysis system (but I like to call it SIMBAS for short).
The SIMBAS emerged from Berkeley and was featured on the inside cover of the 2011 Issue 5 of Lab on a Chip. Luke Lee et al. describe a device capable of picomolar detection in “Stand-alone self-powered integrated microfluidic blood analysis system (SIMBAS).” The device can analyze whole blood without a lot of bells and whistles to get in the way. I’m not saying that this doesn’t have a clever design; it just doesn’t have a battery, moving parts or specialized readers. All you need is some blood and a microscope. The device has five independent analysis streams. There are three parts to a stream, the filter, detector and the suction chamber. All of these components are featured in a slab of PDMS sandwiched between two normal glass slides. Before I describe how the features physically work together, it’s important to note the device’s driving force: low pressure. Before use, the SIMBAS is placed in a low-pressure vacuum, degassing it through the single points of entry of each stream, creating a vacuum. When blood is placed at the inlet the vacuum slowly draws it through the system.
After the vacuum sucks in the blood, the red and white blood cells must be filtered out. One major strength of this device is that it receives unadulterated blood. However, in order to prevent the cells from muddling the detection region of the device, they are filtered out by sedimentation. The floor of the 80 µm high, 50 µm wide sample channel opens up to a 2 mm wide, 2 mm deep circular well, which acts as a filter. The large, heavy cells sediment out and take up permanent residence at the bottom depending on the flow rate of the sample. The biomarkers of interest are much lighter and will continue through without joining the blood cells. This produces plasma that is 100% blood cell free, ready for detection. Platelets sediment at lower rates, so they will still remain in the plasma, but this doesn’t seem to be an issue.
Now that the sample has been fully prepared, it is ready for detection. Remember that the PDMS was placed between two glass slides? The authors immobilized streptavidin bars on the underside of the glass roof. This leaves the streptavidin attached to the ceiling, letting it bind with the biotin that flows by. Streptavidin and biotin have one of the strongest known protein-ligand bonds, making it a perfect choice for this device. When tested, blood was spiked with fluorescently-labeled biotin at 1.5 pM. Many other detectors could be immobilized along the same stream or the other four streams. The five parallel streams allow a way to eliminate errors, or test for biomarkers that are not compatible with each other.
However, we’re still missing the last important feature, the suction trough, an empty region after the detectors. The volume of the trough determines how much sample is drawn through the system. Once the trough is full, flow stops, regardless of how much blood is ready to enter. Modifying the trough volume provides a method to increase the sensitivity of the device. A larger sample volume gives the SIMBAS a better chance to detect a biomarker at low concentrations.
The current setup only needs 5 µL of whole blood for each stream. To put that into perspective, modern glucometers need 1 µL at most to glucose levels. It is (relatively) a bit more blood, but you wouldn’t be doing this every day. After 10 minutes, biotin at 1.5 pM can be detected by removing the top slide and looking at it under a microscope. That’s a pretty low detection in my book. Crazy low. I’m sitting here trying to think of an accurate needle in a haystack analogy, but it’s not coming. Overall, this is a pretty innovative, yet simple device, and I’ll tell you what I think of its merits and things I’d like to see developed.
- To start, this is has a great design for a point-of-care device, especially in a resource-poor setting. It has no external or moving parts, and requires no power. Sometimes in microfluidics, things can get very complicated with the number of channels, pumps, reagents etc., but this has a very clean and trouble-resistant design. It can be pre-packaged under low pressure so that a user only has to open it to activate the vacuum and use it within a couple of minutes.
- The fact that it can receive whole blood also makes it great for point-of-care. Some lab-on-a-chips actually depend on many sample preparation steps or external machines. But all the steps that are needed for it to do its job in isolation should be included, just like SIMBAS. The time between filtration and detection is pretty quick, which is important because the proteins found in the plasma change after longer separations.
- This doesn’t require much sample, and is still able to detect biotin at the low concentration of 1.5 pM. I’m not sure how clinically relevant that number is for biotin, but if you can detect that, you can play with the configuration to bring that down (or raise it much more easily).
What I’d like to see:
- The authors state that the biotin-streptavidin detection could be replaced by many other couples. I don’t doubt this, but I would like to see what detection levels they could achieve, since biotin-streptavidin has one of the strongest protein-ligand bonds.
- In the paper, the authors mention that the detection strips coated on the ceiling were applied on the same day the assay was run. I’d like to know what the shelf life of a prepared card would be, which could really impact their usefulness and value.
- As I mentioned previously, the authors detected fluorescent-tagged biotin in the blood, and examined this under a microscope. You can see the captured biotin fluorescing in their figure. But biotin isn’t naturally tagged with a fluorophore, which makes me wonder how they would normally detect a wild biomarker. Perhaps there is a noticeable difference under the microscope; otherwise they will need to introduce some tag in the blood that will act as a secondary binding agent.
- The last thing I’d like to see is the microscope. Well, I’d like to see it removed. This microfluidics system would be even greater if it was completely stand-alone. Daniel Fletcher (also from UC Berkeley) has developed a cell phone-powered field microscope capable of fluorescence microscopy, so it isn’t impossible in a resource-poor setting, but it’s just my wishful thinking.
Dimov, I., Basabe-Desmonts, L., Garcia-Cordero, J., Ross, B., Ricco, A., & Lee, L. (2011). Stand-alone self-powered integrated microfluidic blood analysis system (SIMBAS) Lab on a Chip, 11 (5) DOI: 10.1039/C0LC00403K | <urn:uuid:35ecce97-45a0-43cf-b6c3-4db5cd3e1b0a> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.microfluidicfuture.com/blog/simbas-everything-the-blood-touches-is-our-kingdom | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195525829.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20190718211312-20190718233312-00027.warc.gz | en | 0.942806 | 1,688 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Engineer your first step to a four-year degree at Edmonds Community College
Engineers Make a Difference
Engineering is the art of applying scientific and mathematical principles, experience, judgment, and common sense to make things that benefit people. Engineers solve problems. They improve and develop products to meet consumer and societal needs. They find ways for existing products to work better, last longer, operate more safely and cost less.
They also look for innovative solutions to global problems. Engineers design bridges and important medical equipment as well as processes for cleaning up toxic spills and systems for mass transit.
It's a Fact
Engineering professions requiring a four-year degree are among the highest paying jobs in Washington State according to the office of Labor Market and Economic Analysis. Source: www.workforceexplorer.com | <urn:uuid:c9d71a03-1a5c-4380-b591-b22abec06ba2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edcc.edu/engr/default.php?showflash=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939896 | 162 | 2.546875 | 3 |
WW2 Propaganda Art Using DrawCast on iPad
My 8th graders studied WW2 Propaganda Art in their Social Studies class and Media Arts. The students became inspired to create original pieces of art with the DrawCast app. Check out the full gallery in this Edmodo Folder: 8th grade Grid Painting
WW2 Propaganda Art in a Grid Drawing
Students analyzed WW2 Propaganda Art and then used grid drawing techniques to further capture the style of the art period into Minecraft art. For more info on this technique, check out my previous post on Renaissance Grid Drawing.
WW2 Propaganda Art Directions for Students
One of the first things that the students had to do was analyze and get inspired by artworks that more than likely used the Renaissance Grid Drawing technique. The students and I found some great samples of artworks in this 80+ WW2 Propaganda Posters collection
After viewing and analyzing the artworks the students had to:
- Download the 1/4″ grid that I created for them from Edmodo
- Open up that grid in the DrawCast App
- On the Foreground layer, they should make up a line drawing that shows:
- One type of propaganda, a generic propaganda type and patriotism
- Color in Lightly over the whole grid
- Turn the grid drawing into Minecraft Art (to be seen in a future post).
- Utilize skills learned from previous DrawCast Female Art Project
You can get more detailed instructions on this lesson from a WW2 Propaganda Posters pdf
WW2 Propaganda Art Lesson Plan
In years past, I have done a variety of Propaganda projects that have been modified to fit a certain grade level. Here is a great Powerpoint full of WW2 Propaganda Art as samples and writing prompts:
WW2 Propaganda Art Student Samples and More
Check out some of my previous Propaganda projects. Not all of them are based on WW2 Propaganda Art, but more like the quality of convincing others with their art. In the old days, the kids made Propaganda Animoto Videos now we are on YouTube – which you will see in an upcoming post. | <urn:uuid:c4c20aaf-332c-41f3-a841-89dd3e15f718> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | http://arttechteacher.com/myblog/ww2-propaganda-art-ipad/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084889542.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20180120083038-20180120103038-00347.warc.gz | en | 0.922614 | 442 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Explore the world through multi-sensory stimulation
Babies use their senses to learn and discover the world since birth. Babies with greater exposure to sensory stimulation show better mental development. At this stage, parents may create different forms of sensory simulation for their babies, such as hanging boldly-coloured cloth books around the crib or placing toys and objects with different shapes, textures, colours or sound effects.
They may also read stories or sing nursery rhymes to the babies. While the little ones may not understand, parents' voices will promote their auditory development, allowing them to recognize the sound and rhythm of a language while enjoying the fun of reading and music. | <urn:uuid:035dc139-163b-4068-be5f-a5a4d82e10cb> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://oxfordpath.com/en/products/age/0m-6m | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510924.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20231001173415-20231001203415-00283.warc.gz | en | 0.942185 | 134 | 3.734375 | 4 |
In contemporary international relations, it is almost impossible to acknowledge the actual situation of armed conflicts without the reports of human rights NGOs. These reports often record detailed data, including the number of civilian casualties, and therefore contribute to the construction of the representation of armed conflicts. While constructivism analyzes the normative power of human rights and NGOs, it misses the struggle over the representation of armed conflicts between human rights NGOs and sovereign states. Applying P. Bourdieu’s theory of fields, this article demonstrates how human rights NGOs have fought against sovereign states and acquired a decisive influence over the representation of armed conflicts. Sovereign states and NGOs have constituted global and local fields in which actors wrangle over legitimacy by making the representation of the armed conflicts.
This article argues that the struggles over the representation of armed conflicts between states and NGOs began in the late 1960s because of several post-colonial conflicts such as the Nigerian Civil War (the Biafran War) and the Northern Yemen Civil War. In these conflicts, traditional neutrality rarely afforded protection from military attack to NGOs; on the contrary, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)’s policy of avoiding testimony faced severe criticism as this policy seemed to help genocide continue. Until the 1960s, NGOs such as the ICRC had tended to avoid publicly criticizing sovereign states in armed conflicts even when NGOs confronted genocides.
In the 1970s, human rights networks, including local and international NGOs, have been created because of serious human rights violations in Latin American countries. Various NGOs recorded human rights violations and publicly criticized authoritarian states. In the 1980s, when the Salvadoran Civil War occurred, local NGOs tracked civilian casualties and human rights violations by armed forces. With the help of these local NGOs, the newly established Americas Watch published many reports on the Salvadoran Civil War. Thereby, the Americas Watch tried to change the foreign policy of the Reagan administration that strongly supported the Salvadoran government. The data on civilian casualties was the focal point of the struggle between NGOs and the Reagan administration. This struggle contributed to the constitution of the global regime for humanitarian crises and led to the development of the methodology of fact-finding in armed conflicts. In the late 1980s and 1990s this global regime for humanitarian crises expanded as the number of human rights NGOs increased and the UN was involved in fact-finding missions.
This paper discusses how, if at all, Mandarin education affects Uyghur students in terms of the potential correlation between language and identity in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Xinjiang is located in the north-west part of China and it has been experiencing violent incidents against government policies recently. The Communist Party of China (CPC) has applied various social policies with the aim of achieving a “harmonious society” through “ethnic unity” under “Chinese Nation” as a response to those incidents. Mandarin education is one of the ways CPC employs to achieve ethnic unity. In Xinjiang, the importance of acquiring Mandarin language is stressed to ethnic minorities, like Uyghur who are mostly Muslim. Through literature reviews, a site visit, and interviews with Uyghur, this paper reveals influence of Mandarin education on Uyghur-Han ethnic group relations and Uyghur identity. It also explores validity of Mandarin education as means to realize ethnic unity and a so-called harmonious society. Language and identity are closely related to each other. For instance, language determines ethnic identity and identity encourages its holder to learn language. Mandarin education segregates Uyghur and Han Chinese and strengthens Uyghur identity because of this correlation. As this form of education differentiates Uyghur from Han and emphasizes the difference of Uyghur ethnic identity, current education overemphasizing Mandarin is not appropriate as means to achieve CPC’s goal of ethnic unity and a harmonious society. If the CPC wants to realize harmonious society as a multi-ethnic country, it should introduce education which esteems minority languageand culture, and should promote mutual understanding from both the minority side and majority Han side. In harmonious societies and multi-ethnic states, each ethnic group maintains its traditional language and culture. Minorities and Han should seek to understand one another through ongoing interaction and mutual acceptance of cultural difference. Key words: Mandarin education, language and identity, Xinjiang, Uyghur
Despite countless international efforts for the peaceful resolution of armed conflicts, why are so many conflicts still observed today? To find an answer to this question, the author seeks to test the following hypothesis; it is difficult to find the root causes of armed conflicts because peace and conflict studies have not paid much attention to research on human emotions. By reviewing previous studies, this hypothesis has been proven true for the following reasons. Firstly, the so-called “rational model” in conflict studies (including the areas of International Law, International Relations and International Politics) does not reflect peoples' felt emotions such as hatred and fear. Secondly, the present international system is not designed to handle politically motivated, aggressive emotions properly. As a conclusion, this essay notes that a pro-social emotion such as empathy does not necessarily prevent conflicts. Interdisciplinary research efforts concerning armed conflicts are needed so that the “vulnerable human model” which indicates a person who can easily switch from victim to aggressor or vice versa will replace the “rational model” in the future research. | <urn:uuid:501efb14-fc54-4289-8b94-078ea48f1a5c> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/result/global/-char/ja?globalSearchKey=%22%E3%82%A2%E3%83%A0%E3%83%8D%E3%82%B9%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B3%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%8A%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A7%E3%83%8A%E3%83%AB%22 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578527135.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20190419041415-20190419063415-00172.warc.gz | en | 0.773313 | 1,105 | 2.609375 | 3 |
A suspended ceiling consists of an interlocking metal grid suspended from an already in place ceiling or an unfinished ceiling with exposed joists. The grid holds ceiling panels in place. The panels come in many colors and are generally ½ to 2/3 inch thick. The panels come in wood fiber, fiberglass, or a mineral fiber and in 2×2 and 2×4 foot in size. An advantage to the suspended ceiling is easy removal and simple access to pipes, wiring, and ductwork.
T-shaped “main runners” that are 8 foot or 12 foot in length and extend the length of the room crosswise to the joists. These main runners or tees are the primary support for the weight of the ceiling and are hung by hanger wire from the joists or supports above.
Cross-tees or crosspieces are support members that snap into the main tees or runners and hold each ceiling panel in place. They come in 2-foot or 4-foot long T-shaped “crosspieces” that snap into slots in the runners.
Wall Angles are 10-foot long metal strips placed around the entire circumference of the room. These will provide a finished edge as it meets the wall.
Calculate the amount of panels needed:
If using 2X 2-foot panels divide 4 square feet into the area of the ceiling (length X width). To calculate 2×4-foot panels divide 8 square feet area of the ceiling (length X width), add 5 % for error in both cases.
Purchase screw eyes and hanger wire that is at least 18 gauge used to hang the runners. Have on hand metal snips to cut the grids and 6d nails.
Find the wall studs and mark their locations at the height of the new ceiling. Allow at least 3 inches between old and new ceiling and 6 inches if installing recessed lighting. Hidden joists must be located and marked with chalk lines.
According to the measurement of the room lay out the grid plan on graph paper. Figure the layout so the tiles next to the wall are at least six inches wide. Plan the layout so that the main runners are crosswise to the joists. Use the diagram as a guide and mark the lines on the wall for the main runners.
The selected height of the new ceiling should be marked with a snap chalk line on the walls. A carpenter’s level will make sure the line is level. The base of the wall Angles are placed at the chalk line and nailed into the studs. Using snips cut pieces that join making sure they meet at the studs. Adjoin inside corners and miter outside corners.
Use chalk lines to mark the position of the main runners. Snap the chalk line across the ceiling joists. Extend strings across the room at the height of the ceiling to mark locations of runners and crosspieces. Wedge nails under wall Angles and tie the stretched strings to the nails. Cut the runners so the slots for the crosspieces will synchronize with the crossing of the strings.
Place screw eyes into joists along the chalk lines using one every fourth joist or according to instructions. Use about 1 foot of hanger wire through each screw eye and wrap it securely around itself and the end of the wire through the round runner opening. Measure wires height and secure wire end.
When the room is longer than 12 foot cut extra runner sections to fit. Snap the interlocking runner ends together. The slots for the crosspieces will need to meet correctly coinciding with the string crossings. Guided by the strings, snap crosspieces into runner slots and trim border crosspieces to fit.
Now that the grid is installed check that it is level. If grid is not level, modify the wires at this point. Cut the panels needed for the outer edges and install the full size panels by rows. To insert the panels tilt them up and though the grids then straighten and ease onto the flanged edges. | <urn:uuid:ced07286-c10b-45a4-bd5d-aab4d5b1d693> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://www.howtowise.com/how-to-install-a-suspended-panel-ceiling/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243991801.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20210515100825-20210515130825-00300.warc.gz | en | 0.924865 | 816 | 2.671875 | 3 |
June 16, 2011
This strip of land on the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia covers an area of 150 kilometers by 50 kilometers. Central coordinates are located a 162 degrees, 54 minutes east longitude and 60 degrees, 0 minutes north latitude. This mountainous scene also reveals many rivers and forests. For closer images of the left and right sides of this strip, please refer to the two subsequent (serially numbered) frames. All X-SAR imagery and related charts and maps are provided by DLR, Germany's national aerospace resource center as well as the national space agency.
Topics: Longitude, Latitude, Navigation, Environment, Geographic coordinate system, Kamchatka Peninsula, Geography | <urn:uuid:d1d6a7fd-59fb-468d-9b2a-075e20e09676> | CC-MAIN-2014-15 | http://www.redorbit.com/images/pic/43632/jsc2000-e-2643/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1398223206647.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20140423032006-00645-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.89303 | 140 | 3.421875 | 3 |
What are Cookies?
What are cookies used for?
Cookies can be used for different reasons like session management, personalization and tracking. Cookies are usually used to improve the visitors user experience of the website by remembering the visitors previous choices or authentication details, thus letting the visitor browse the site without authenticating herself every time they visit the address from the same computer etc.
Different types of Cookies
Cookies are often divided in two different groups: session cookies and persistent cookies. A session cookie is a temporary cookie which is stored for the entire duration of the session. The session cookie is automatically deleted when the visitor close their browser. A typical example of a session cookie is the shopping cart cookie. Where the previous choices of the visitor is remembered at the checkout page.
Persistent cookies on the other hand are stored for an arbitrary period of time, say 30minutes or one year. The cookie life length is set by the developer of the website. These types of cookies are often used for quick authentication, language or theme selections or other types of customization of a website.
Tracking & Cookie Profiling
All cookies are not in line with the users wish or preferences. While a lot of the cookies are created with good intentions to improve functionality and the users experience web experience, others are used for tracking purposes or profiling that might cross a line that the user is not comfortable with.
A heavily discussed topic is the targeted advertisements that are based on the users cookie profile. This is mainly done with something called 3rd party cookies.
3rd party cookies
Sometimes a web server or website loads scripts, images or other assets from another location than the URL that the visitor entered into their web browser. The loading of these scripts enables cookies to be stored at the visitors device from the other location. One of the most common examples of this are the social media widgets used to share or like an article or page.
These cookies are often used for tracking or cookie profiling to customize ads after user behavior. Targeted advertisements have been up for discussion related to privacy.
As the life length of a cookies differ a lot, there are times when you may want to delete some cookies before their expiry date. This can be done by clearing the cookies on your computer which is usually done in your web browser. | <urn:uuid:1e7d11d5-869f-4c8f-8725-54a75fe00c4a> | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | http://cookiescript.info/what-are-cookies | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400228998.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20200925213517-20200926003517-00544.warc.gz | en | 0.929065 | 465 | 3.21875 | 3 |
What is a flange?
A flange is nothing but a forged still ring. It Helping different mechanical sections of a pipe to stay connected, a flange is one of the most indispensable equipment in piping. It is often used to connect a pipe to a pump or a pressure vessel. Because of being made with steel, it is extremely easy to clean or inspect the flanges. Different forms in which flanges are available today include round, square, and rectangular. The bolting process is used to join two flanges together. Once two flanges are joined, they are welded to the piping system, as per requirement. A flange is often used for the purpose of either closing or covering the pipe end. The importance of flanges in supporting mechanical parts is next to none.
How to know more about Mild Steel Flange?
Flanges are made with different materials like carbon steel, alloy steel, mild steel, etc. for different purposes. MS Flanges are often used for resisting pressure which is often high. This kind of flanges are often offered in different finishes including hot dip galvanized finish, blackbodies finish, shot blasted, rust free oil finish, and so on. High-quality MS flanges are perfect to be used as water-proof seals to the end of a pipe. Plus, these flanges are pretty resistant to corrosion.
Which industries use MS Flanges?
Due to its ability to hold pressure and resist corrosion, MS Flanges are widely used across industries. Some of these industries include petrochemicals, pharmaceutical, sea water, power generation, gas processing, chemical equipment, etc.
What are the important measurements for buying MS flanges?
Some of the most important ms flange measurements are given below. You should always remember these while purchasing one.
- Pipe Size: Every pipe size has a corresponding pipe flange size. These measurements are calculated according to accepted standards. So, make sure that you remember the pipe size to get the perfect-sized flange.
- Flange Thickness: Flange thickness is nothing but the thickness of the outer rim of a flange. While measuring flange thickness, you are not supposed to count the part that holds the pipe.
- Pitch Circle Diameter: PCD or Pitch Circle Diameter is the measurement between the center of a bolt hole to the same of the opposite bolt hole.
- Outside Diameter of Flange (OD): OD or Outside Diameter is the length between the outer edge and the edge opposite to it.
Is it possible to have MS flanges in custom shapes?
Most of the manufacturers out there will offer MS Flanges in custom shapes and sizes. Whether you are looking for popular ranges or not, ms flanges can be customized as per your requirement. Detailing in the flanges can be manufactured according to your choices as well. Reputed companies will provide you with details like gasket surfaces, bevel edges, o-ring grooves, and much more.
About Apex Engineering:
The Mumbai-based Apex Engineering is known for offering assorted industrial products. Their product range includes industrial flanges, fittings, pipes, and so on. | <urn:uuid:e4b3bed9-96a3-4bb8-a471-94c651065288> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://qingzhiliao.com/basics-of-mild-steel-flange/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233511364.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20231004084230-20231004114230-00300.warc.gz | en | 0.942416 | 651 | 3.265625 | 3 |
The trail of a falling object is seen above the Urals city of Chelyabinsk… (HANDOUT, Reuters Photo )
While all eyes were on a 150-foot asteroid harmlessly skimming Earth's atmosphere Friday, it was upstaged by a surprise meteor a third its size that appeared out of nowhere and exploded in a fireball above the Ural mountains near Chelyabinsk, Russia.
It's the "out of nowhere" part that concerns some experts.
"We have confidence in our ability to predict the orbits of asteroids very precisely, but we have to know about them in order to do so," said Dan Mazanek, Near-Earth Object (NEO) technical lead at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton. "With the vast majority of these small objects currently undetected, an incident like the Chelyabinsk event is by far the most likely future scenario.
"There are likely hundreds of thousands or even millions of near-Earth objects similar in size to the object that exploded over Russia last Friday. I think this Russian meteor will likely make scientists reconsider the size capable of destruction to people and infrastructure on the ground, once we get some data on its properties."
An asteroid is a small, rocky body locked in solar orbit. A meteor is a meteoroid, or chunk of space rock or debris, that falls into a planet's atmosphere. Pieces that strike the ground are called meteorites.
NASA estimates Friday's meteor was 55 feet across and weighed about 10,000 tons when it entered the atmosphere. By comparison, the asteroid called DA14 was 150 feet across and weighed 130,000 metric tons.
The meteor rocketed across the sky at about 19 miles per second, according to Russian scientists. The force of the explosion as it entered the atmosphere broke the space rock to bits, scattering meteorites over a vast, wintry landscape.
Shock waves shattered thousands of windows, caused $33 million worth of damage and injured nearly 1,200 people, according to reports.
On the same day, smaller objects also believed to be meteors exploded above Cuba and the San Francisco Bay Area, rattling windows and walls but causing no injuries, the Associated Press reported.
"Meteorites are not as uncommon as you think and can be found all over the earth," said Mazanek. "Of course there are types that are rarer than others, but many meteorites are hard to distinguish from terrestrial rocks unless you know where they fell."
This is why meteorites are more easily distinguished on ice fields such as those found in Antarctica, he said.
According to reports, residents in and around Chelyabinsk launched a "meteorite rush" over the weekend, collecting chunks of space rock to keep as souvenirs or to sell. Russian scientists have tested fragments and confirmed they are "chondrites," or stony meteorites.
A 26-foot hole discovered in the ice of nearby Lake Chebarkul is suspected to have been caused by a larger fragment. Mazanek called the hole a "great calling card" for impact.
Smaller meteor strikes occur five to 10 times a year, experts say, and most land in uninhabited areas. For every NEO already detected, scientists estimate 99 others remain undetected.
While the asteroid and meteors crossed Earth's path on the same day, Mazanek and other scientists say it was mere "cosmic coincidence."
The objects came from different directions and orbits and occurred too far apart to have been related, Mazanek said. | <urn:uuid:306e7d0a-c59f-40ea-9ac8-e95bca4790c1> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://articles.dailypress.com/2013-02-20/news/dp-nws-nasa-meteor-folo-20130220_1_surprise-meteor-meteorites-space-rock | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1393999653645/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305060733-00097-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952887 | 726 | 2.78125 | 3 |
dialog.messageShows a message box
|Shows a message dialog box with the specified <caption>, <message_text>, <icon> and
<caption> is a text string that will appear in the caption of the dialog box.
<message_text> is a text string that will appear in the dialog box and can contain HTML formatting.
<icon> is an image identifier that defines an icon to be placed in the dialog box. <icon> can be a relative or absolute path to an image file, a signed number (in that case it defines an internal KVIrc image) or one of the special strings "critical", "information" and "warning".
<button0> is the text of the first button (on the left).
<button1> is the text of the second button (if empty or specified, only one button will appear in the dialog).
<button2> is the text of the third button (if empty or specified, only two buttons will appear in the dialog).
The first button is the default button - it is activated when the user presses the enter key. The third (or the second if only two buttons are present) is treated as the escape button and is activated when the user presses the Esc key or closes the dialog with the window manager close button.
If one of the button text strings starts with a "default=" prefix then that button is assumed to be the default button of the dialog.
If one of the button text strings starts with a "escape=" prefix then that button is assumed to be the escape button of the dialog.
<magic1>,<magic2>... are the magic parameters - evaluated at dialog.message call time and passed to the <callback_command> as positional parameters.
If the -b or -modal switch is specified the dialog will have blocking modal behaviour - it will appear above its parent widget and block its input until the dialog is closed.
Once the dialog is displayed, the user will click one of the buttons. At this point the dialog is hidden and the <callback_command> is executed, passing the number of the button clicked as $0 and the magic parameters as positional parameters $1, $2, $3.... | <urn:uuid:162e1f07-d4c3-42f7-9faa-52f9c8e6c01b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kvirc.net/doc/cmd_dialog.message.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704666482/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114426-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.791444 | 464 | 2.765625 | 3 |
The meniscus (cartilage) in the knee is a fibrocartilage disc that helps to absorb shock and distribute load across the joint surface. The menisci also help to provide nutrition to the joint surfaces along with providing extra stability by deepening the joint.
The medial meniscus sits on the inside of the joint and the lateral sits on the outside of the joint. The menisci are attached at to the front and back of the knee via the anterior and posterior horn.
The most common mechanism when injuring a meniscus of the knee is a twisting movement where the foot is anchored and a rotational force is applied to the joint.
Common symptoms associated with a meniscus tear;
- knee swelling
- joint line pain
- reports of locking, clicking or catching
- restriction of movement
- pain aggravated by twisting movement
There are various meniscal tears depending on the orientation and extent which include; longitudinal, degeneravtive, flap, bucket handle and radial tears.
Treatment depends on the severity of the tear.
Most small tears respond well to physiotherapy consisting of manual therapy and quadriceps strengthening, bike riding and balance re-training. More extensive tears such as bucket handle tear may require arthroscopic surgery.
All Physica staff receive extra training in the diagnosis and management of meniscal injuries. We will assess the degree of your injury and implement a specific plan to return you to full health. | <urn:uuid:5b6c9c82-aa4d-4a25-b9d0-eb47afc8b664> | CC-MAIN-2018-47 | https://www.physica.com.au/meniscal-injuries/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-47/segments/1542039746205.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20181122101520-20181122123520-00425.warc.gz | en | 0.892802 | 298 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Chris Langan was profiled in Malcolm Gladwell’s book as “the world’s smartest man.”
But in the video below he shows the organic and asymmetrical nature of thinking, in that it can be measured and concise and brilliant in one context, and seemingly broken, baseless, and fully rejected in another. (Watch the video and it will quickly become clear what I mean.)
This hints at what cognitive scientists call “Practical Intelligence”–the ability to find “the best fit between themselves and the demands of the environment.” As the video shows, there is a stark difference in the “beauty” of an idea as it moves through contexts, from imaginative and playful to more serious, clinical, and calculated. What is the takeaway for education as it becomes increasingly mobile, “real world,” and charged with digital and social media?
As students develop ideas increasingly in collaboration with others, what changes to workflow and idea processing should be adapted to account for these changes in the landscape of learning? Fundamentally, this boils down to the very nature of collaboration. | <urn:uuid:bffb6c4a-0318-48ba-a09b-a572ec09b4cc> | CC-MAIN-2015-32 | http://www.teachthought.com/learning/chris-langan-and-the-application-of-thinking/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042988048.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002308-00106-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951451 | 233 | 2.625 | 3 |
The Unionization Process: Minnesota
Federal law and guidance on this subject should be reviewed together with this section.
Author: Mark Mathison, Gray Plant Mooty
- For most private sector employers in Minnesota, labor union organizing and labor relations generally is governed by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). See Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.
- Minnesota has a private sector labor relations statute, known as the Minnesota Labor Relations Act (MLRA), but the MLRA is broadly preempted by the NLRA, making it mostly inapplicable for nearly all private sector employment. See Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.
- Application of the MLRA is generally limited to very small employers that do not fall within the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board. See Minnesota Labor Relations Act.
- Minnesota is not a "right to work" state. See "Right to Work" Status.
- Minnesota has a labor relations anti-injunction statute that protects employees' right to organize that is generally applicable only where the federal labor law does not reach. See Minnesota Labor Disputes Injunction Act. | <urn:uuid:98052bea-c43e-43d3-9986-ad2ffa675d65> | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | https://www.xperthr.com/employment-law-manual/the-unionization-process-minnesota/2955/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514573105.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20190917181046-20190917203046-00152.warc.gz | en | 0.935988 | 233 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Notes on The Last Supper by Dieric Bouts
This is the central panel of a triptych known as the Altarpiece of the Holy Sacrament. The work was commissioned in 1464 by the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament for St Peter’s church in Leuven, where it is still displayed.
There are four other paintings attached in pairs either side of the centre panel, but it is the Last Supper composition that is the main focus of this presentation.
It is a remarkable painting and rich in iconography which is generally missed or overlooked in presentations of the work. While the Institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper is the dominant theme, there are other narratives (apart from the side panels) in this exposition.
The Flemish Primitives website provides a comprehensive biography about the artist Dieric Bouts and a visual description of the Altarpiece of the Last Supper painting, as well as access to view the painting in a large format.
about this presentation
This presentation is work in progress and in the form of a series of random notes as posted on my catchlight.blog. Linked updates are listed below.
30.01.2019 MORE ON SIMON AND PHILIP
24.01.2019 SIMON THE ZEALOT AND PHILIP
14.01.2019 WHO DO YOU SAY WE ARE?
11.01.2019 HAND SERVANTS
10.01.2019 A COMMUNION OF ARTISTS AND SAINTS
Altarpiece of the Holy Sacrament,
1464-1468, by Dieric Bouts
St Peter’s Church, Leuven
a communion of artists and saints
It is possible to identify the apostles around the table with the iconography clues embedded by Dierec Bouts, but less obvious are some of the second identities Bouts has included. They are mainly artists, his contemporaries. But Bouts picks out one artist in particular, Rogier van Weyden, the figure standing on the right side of the frame who historians generally describe as one of the servants on hand.
Historians are also uncertain about the identities of the two men framed on the back wall, peering through a serving hatch (right). Generally thought to portray “members of the confraternity responsible for commissioning the altarpiece” they are, in fact, two artists: Dieric Bouts (left) and Hans Memling (right). The German painter is said to have spent time working in Van der Weyden’s Brussels workshop, while Bouts was also influenced by Rogier who died in 1464, just three months after Bouts had agreed the contract to produce the altarpiece.
Another artist said to have greatly influenced Bouts was Jan van Eyck. He is the figure in red, seated in front of Van der Weyden and portrayed as St James the Lesser, a pointer to the quatrain on the Ghent Altarpiece in which Jan acknowledges his brother Hubert as the greater artist.
Dieric Bouts and Hans Memling?
Variations of Hans Memling:
As Jan van Winckele, as a servant, St John and St Michael
But what about Hans Memling’s contribution to the altarpiece, if any? Memling was probably the youngest among the group of featured artists and so it would not be unreasonable to focus on the youngest of the disciples, John, sat on the left of Jesus. There is a resemblance to the Memling portrait in the serving hatch but a more convincing connection are components from The Last Judgment triptych painted by Memling between 1467 and 1471. The faces of the two St Michael figures (Membling?) resemble St John, probably because the writing of the Book of Revelation is attributed to the Evangelist, while Memling’s group of artists as heavenly apostles is seemingly inspired by the group of artists as apostles in the Bouts painting.
A section from Hans Memling’s Last Judgment showing Jesus and his apostles in heaven.
National Museum, Gdansk
The Memling portrait in the serving hatch is adapted from an earlier portrait by Bouts painted in 1462 and located in the National Gallery, London. The sitter is questionably said to be Jan van Winckele. The gallery’s description explains that it is “the earliest surviving dated Netherlandish portrait to include a view through a window, although such views were included in Netherlandish paintings with religious subjects.”
Dieric Bouts alongside Hans Memling, and the National Gallery’s ‘Jan van Winckele?’
By linking the two paintings in this way, and then portraying Memling alongside his own portrait, but looking in the opposite direction, was Bouts suggesting that both men had been working on producing triptychs at the same time that shared a similar narrative – the apostles as artists – but viewed from different perspectives, apostles on earth and apostles in heaven? Bouts as the ‘master’ and Memling as the ‘disciple’ he favoured?
As to the other standing figure beside the serving hatch, he is not an artist but a patron. The clue to his identity is that Bouts has placed him standing behind the apostle Peter who represents the foundation of the Church. He shares the same name as the apostle – a second Peter, so to speak. He is Peter II, a member of the influential Adornes family of merchants from Bruges. He is represented as a deacon attending to Jesus in his role as priest, the Last Supper being the first Mass.
There is a particular reason why Bouts has depicted Peter II Adornes and Rogier van der Weyden as standing figures. Both men died in 1464, the year the painting was commissioned. Not only is Bouts suggesting that they were upright and respected figures in society, but their standing is symbolic of being raised up and resurrected. A communion of saints.
The Last Supper panel of the Altarpiece of the Holy Sacrament was for St Peter’s Chuch, Leuven. Its Dean at the time was Dominic Bassadonis who also served as Chancellor of Leuven’s Old University, founded by Pope Martin V in 1425. The University’s four boarding schools were named: the Castle, the Falcon, the Lily, and the Boar (or Pig).
College crests… The Boar or Pig, the Lily, the Castle, the Falcon… Louvain Monumental
Each school had its own coat of arms or emblem, as shown above. These are referred to in The Last Supper painting, “assigned” to hands of the four apostles alongside Jesus. From left to right they are St Andrew (castle), St Peter (falcon), St John (lily) and St Thomas (boar or pig).
Hand signs… Castle, Falcon, Lily and Boar (or Pig)
Probably the most difficult to distinguish, but more meaningful, are the hands of Thomas. The four fingers of his left hand form the boar’s head, the thumb its ear. Thomas’ right hand covers his left for a reason. He had doubted the resurrection of Jesus and refused to believe unless he could touch the wounds of the risen Lord.
The French translation for boar is sanglier. However, Bouts splits the word in deference to Van Eyck’s use of word play in his paintngs. Jan is seated next to Thomas. When sanglier is split into two words – sang and lier – a new meaning evolves: blood and bond. So Thomas’ right hand represents a seal over the wound made in Christ’s hand when he was nailed to his cross – a reminder of a new covenant bond with God, sealed with the blood of Jesus. It was at the Last Supper that Jesus shared the cup of wine with his disciples and said to them: “This is my blood, the blood of the new covenant, to be poured out on behalf of many.”
There is another narrative that connects to both the boar sign and the issue of blood. In Judaism, physical contact with blood or a boar (pig) is considered unclean and requires the person to be ritually purified. Above the figure of Thomas at the door entrance is a receptable for washing. A basin and towel are also under the cupboard beside Van der Weyden.
For the hands of Thomas to represent uncleanliness at the table is a pointer to the teaching of Jesus when the Pharisees complained about his disciples breaking traditions by not washing their hands before eating food, and what is understood by a man being clean and unclean (Matthew 15 : 1-20). Thomas’ doubt was not washed away by ritual cleansing but by being invited to touch the wounds of Jesus.
The twelve disciples of Jesus seated at the Last Supper... but who are they?
who do you say we are?
So who are the twelve disciples sat around the table? Running clockwise from Jesus, they can be identified as follows: John, Thomas, James the Less, Matthew, Bartholmew, Jude, Judas, James the Great, Simon the Zealot, Andrew, Philip, and Simon Peter.
Two portrayals of John the Evangelist, both likened to the artist Hans Memling.
John the Evangelist
John is the easiest to identify as he is generally considered to be the youngest of the disciples and usually portrayed without a beard. In the two images above, the left a section of The Donne Triptych by Hans Memling (National Gallery), John can be easily matched with the clip from The Last Supper, probably because Memling is the model in both paintings.
John is often depicted in paintings holding a chalice or with one close to him, sometimes containing a snake, as shown below. Notice the twist pattern on the lid of the silver chalice lid and the ‘snake’ handle.
The disciples are not seated at random. Each man connects in some way with the one on his left. So there is a specific link between John and Thomas, the disciple next to him. It is this: John has his eyes focused on the bread which Jesus says is his body, Thomas hasn’t. His appears to be deep in thought, “somewhere else”. This scenario points to the time when Jesus appeared in the same room after his Resurrection. Thomas was not present. He was “somewhere else”. When he did return the other disciples said to Thomas “We have seen the Lord!” Thomas doubted the claim until Jesus later appeared a second time to the disciples, Thomas included. This account only appears in John’s Gospel and is the link.
Some of the iconography identifying Thomas was pointed out iearlier, but there is more.
Thomas was also known as Didymus – meaning “twin”. Bouts has interpreted “twin” as meaning “two-fold” – the folding of Thomas’ hands and the folding of the table cloth on which his hands are placed.
Thomas was a builder by profession, so one of his attributes in art is a builder’s square. To the left of his head is a pattern of square floor tiles. He is also seated at the corner of the table, and the fold in the table cloth forms a 45 degree angle. Thomas was the first disciple to profess his faith in Jesus by acknowledging the resurrected Christ as his Lord and God, a cornerstone and foundation of faith.
Match-ups... from A Goldsmith in his Shop by Petrus Christus, and The Last Supper by Dieric Bouts.
Simon the Zealot and Philip
Seated on the left side of the table are the apostles James the Great, Simon the Zealot and Philip.
Simon and Philip mirror a similar group portrayed in A Goldsmith in his Shop, a work attributed to Petrus Christus and dated 1449, some 18 years prior to the completion of The Last Supper. In turn, for the Goldsmith painting, Petrus adapted some of the features and narratives from the Ghent Altarpiece produced by the brothers Jan and Hubert van Eyck and completed in 1434. Bouts’ version is a composite of the two groups with added narratives.
There are several visual matches for Simon (Petrus Christus): the burgundy skull cap, the red robe, both men looking up, transfixed, and the three-hand triangle formation are the most noticeable pairings. Simon’s hands can also be matched – one rests on the table edge, the other is raised.
In both the Goldsmith and Last Supper paintings, Jan is portrayed with his eyes looking down over the shoulder of the figure of Petrus sat beside him. This defines the relationship between the two artists. Petrus studied under the watchful eye of Jan in his studio and later took over the workshop after Van Eyck’s death in 1441.
Jan van Eyck doubles up as the Duke of Burgundy in the Ghent Altarpiece and is mirrored in the Goldsmith painting by Petrus Christus.
The self portrait of Jan in the Ghent Altarpiece is also a representation of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy – and this makes the connection to Philip the Apostle. So, in fact, the figure in The Last Supper represents three people, Philip the Apostle, Philip the Good, and Jan van Eyck. Already mentioned is the relationship between Jan and Petrus, so what is the relationship between the apostles Simon and Philip? What is the relationship that unites the figures when portrayed as Petrus and Philip the Good?
When the contract to produce the Altarpiece of the Holy Sacrament was drawn up and signed in March 1464, it stipulated the assignment of two theologians to assist the painter Dieric Bouts. Johannes Varenacker and Egidius Bailuwel were associated with the Old Leuven University and are featured in the top left panel of the altarpiece.
Left: Theologians Johannes Varenacker and Egidius Bailuwel. Right: A representation of both Van Eyck and Varenacker.
Bouts has also portrayed Varenacker in The Last Supper panel, in the guise of James the Less sat at the table corner opposite Philip. The figure also represents an older version of Jan van Eyck. So there are two representations of Jan at the table – as Philip, and as James the Less. There is a specific reason for Bouts doing this and likely that Varenacker played his part in constructing the links, hence the reason for portraying the theologian a second time in the altarpiece and in this particular section.
But the combined figure of Van Eyck and Varenacker portrayed as James the Less isn’t just speculation on my part. The connection is confirmed by an associate of Bouts, Hugo van der Goes, in his Adoration of the Kings panel of the Monforte Altarpiece.
Johannes Varenacker and Jan van Eyck in multiple guises. The centre image is from the Monforte Altarpiece by Hugo van der Goes.
The humble figure of St Joseph is a representation of Varenacker shown with a depiction of Christ’s Shroud on his shoulder, a pointer to Van Eyck’s fascination for what is now known as the Turin Shroud. Notice Joseph has cap in hand as also Varenacker and Van Eyck in the Altarpiece of the Holy Sacrament.
One of the New Testament references connected to the figures of Simon and Philip is from John’s gospel. The passage about the miracle of the loaves describes how five barley loaves and two fish were enough to feed 5,000 people who had sat down to eat on a hillside (6 : 1-15).
Verse 5 reads: “Looking up, Jesus saw the crowds approaching and said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?’”
Such was the size of the crowd that Philip answered “ Two hundred dinari would only buy enough for a small piece each.”
Another disciple, Andrew, whose brother was Peter, said a small boy had five barley loaves and two fish but it wouldn’t be enough to feed everyone, estimated at 5,000 people.
Sitting next to Philip in The Last Supper panel is the mentioned Andrew (in red) alongside his brother Peter (in green).
Philip and Simon the Zealot are portrayed with their mouths open. They are in a conversation which represents the question asked by Jesus and Philip’s answer. Simon in the role of Christ (as in Petrus Christus) is portrayed “looking up”.
When taking the loaves, Jesus gave thanks – a blessing – before giving the bread out to the people. Simon’s (Christus) right hand is raised in blessing. It also represents the tail end of a fish, as does the joined hands of Philip, in regard to the two fish presented with the five loaves. The three-hand, dove-like formation represents the descent and action of the Holy Spirit in blessing the offering.
On the table are six pieces of bread, not five. However, two are half-cuts, the pieces in front of James the Less and Simon the Zealot, or Jan van Eyck and Petrus Christus. In the case of the latter pairing this points to the two painters sharing in some way, perhaps Jan passing on his knowledge and experience to the younger artist, or even his studio after his death.
The juxtaposition of the knife and half-cut bread placed in front of Simon refers to the Zealot’s type of death and martyrdom when his body was reputed to have been sawn in half. It also points to the breaking of bread (Christ’s body) during the celebration of the Eucharist. The knife is positioned on a trajectory pointing to the figure of Jesus blessing the communion wafer in his hand with the words: “This is my body which will be given for you.” (Luke 22 : 19)
Elements of the Philip and Simon pairing (Jan van Eyck and Petrus Christus) are reflected in two figures on the opposite side of the table, with the large dish echoing the famous mirror feature in Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait painting. Already mentioned is the elderly depiction of Van Eyck sat at the corner of the table. Next to him is Matthew, the tax collector.
• More to follow...
Above: disciples Andrew and Peter... Below: A conversation between Simon and Philip. | <urn:uuid:581f15ab-e7d2-447a-9938-10a0b7f79977> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://www.arnolfinimystery.com/dieric-bouts-last-supper | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250611127.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20200123160903-20200123185903-00141.warc.gz | en | 0.968728 | 3,926 | 2.765625 | 3 |
A new kind of material (of which currently no actual picture exists anywhere) with the consistency of pudding that hardens instantly when exposed to magnetism has been developed by a team of researchers at Japan’s Yamagata University. And once the substance, a mix between high polymer and iron oxide granules, hardens, it can become up to 500 times stiffer than plastic.
The researchers say when the magnetic field is 300 milli-tesla strong, for example, the material hardens 300-fold in under one second. The iron oxide granules are spread randomly throughout the gel-like material, but when magnetized, they align in rows and stiffen the gel, which is made of more than 50% water.
The gel could be used in card and trains one day to dampen vibrations. Furniture makers could adjust the softness of chairs and other furniture.
Via Nikkei [registration required, paid subscription] | <urn:uuid:37334d6e-4682-468a-bfb9-7ce98cbf4d8b> | CC-MAIN-2015-06 | http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/03/new-spongy-material-instantly-hardens-on-exposure-to-magnetism/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422122086930.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124175446-00167-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931176 | 194 | 2.625 | 3 |
Filomena speaks first, choosing Love as her topic, since the company couldn’t exhaust the subject if they talked about it every day for a whole year. Her tale will show how love can inspire lovers to feats as strange as entering tombs and dressing up as corpses. In Pistoia, a beautiful young widow named Francesca de’ Lazzari is courted by two refugees from Florence, Alessandro Chiarmontesi and Rinuccio Palermini. Because she incautiously humored each man in the past, she can’t easily extricate herself from their pursuits until she develops a plan to reject their advances on “plausible and legitimate grounds.”
Although Filomena claims that her tale illustrates the overwhelming power of love to cause lovers to do strange things, it also provides an example of a clever woman ridding herself of her unwanted lovers. It thus connects with tales of other women who find themselves in the same situation, whether they successfully extricate themselves, like Monna Isabella (VII, 6) and Monna Piccarda (VIII, 4), or not, like Elena (VIII, 7). The tale assigns at least some blame to Francesca for her situation: listening to or “humoring” each man’s suit in the past has generated an expectation that their courtship will continue until it is successful, unless there is a compelling reason for her to decline. This suggests that, as a woman, she doesn’t have full autonomy over decisions of love, but is beholden to the expectations of her suitors. The fact that both suitors are political refugees from Florence points to the political upheavals of the 13th and 14th centuries.
On the day of Francesca de’ Lazzari’s inspiration, a recently deceased man called “Scannadio” has been buried nearby. He was a notorious rogue and ugly enough to “frighten the bravest man in the land.” Francesca sends a message to Alessandro Chiarmontesi with a somewhat plausible scheme for sneaking him into her home: one of her kinsmen is planning (for unstated reasons) to take Scannadio’s body from his tomb and hide it in her house. She wants Alessandro to break into the tomb, put on Scannadio’s clothes, and impersonate his corpse. Then, she tells Rinuccio Palermini that if he steals Scannadio’s body (for reasons she’ll explain later) and carries it to her house, she will give him what he desires.
The situation Francesca engineers flirts with excess. Scannadio’s name literally means “slit God’s throat,” suggesting that he’s not just a bad guy but that he’s the worst of the worst. Emphasizing his evilness and his ugliness serves to increase the terror Alessandro must overcome to enter his tomb at night and take his place, and the fear and distaste that Rinuccio might feel over stealing his corpse. She’s clever enough to pick things that are just horrific enough to be off-putting but not so ridiculous that it will be clear that she’s trying to rid herself of either man. And she sweetens the deal with her sex appeal, implying that Alessandro will find himself in a position to visit her private quarters once he’s been carried into her house in disguise and frankly promising to sleep with Rinuccio in exchange for doing such a strange (not to mention illegal and immoral) task for her.
Alessandro Chiarmontesi and Rinuccio Palermini each say they’re ready to go into Hell itself for Francesca de’ Lazzari, who waits to see what will happen. Heading to Scannadio’s tomb, Alessandro is scared that Francesca’s relatives have discovered his love and concocted this strange scheme to murder him. If, on the other hand, they do want the corpse, he can only imagine they want to abuse it, so he fears he'll be beaten up either way. But his love makes “counter-arguments […] so persuasive” that he enters the tomb, dresses in the dead man’s clothes, and lays down despite his fear that Scannadio’s corpse will reanimate and slit his throat.
It turns out that Alessandro doesn’t fear the dead or divine judgement as much as he fears Francesca’s relatives. Nevertheless, he proves himself to be a faithful and brave lover by following through on Francesca’s request regardless of his worry. The fact that the tale doesn’t detail what counterarguments could possibly overcome the fear of being murdered or savagely beaten suggests the force of love, which can overpower common sense.
Likewise, as Rinuccio Palermini sets out to retrieve Scannadio’s corpse, he worries that he’ll be caught and punished either by the law or the man’s family. But he’s determined to honor this first request from Francesca de’ Lazzari, even if it means his death. At the tomb, he hoists Alessandro Chiarmontesi over his shoulders and sets off toward Francesca’s house, banging Alessandro into things in the dark. But before he can knock on her door, two night-watchmen intercept him. He drops Alessandro, and both lovers take off running.
Like his counterpart, Rinuccio worries over the legal and ethical implications of stealing a corpse, but his love for Francesca is so overwhelming that he ignores his fears and follows through on her request. In doing so, he represents the ability of love to overpower common sense and proves Rinuccio to be a faithful and true suitor.
Watching from a window, Francesca de’ Lazzari is somewhat impressed by each man’s bravery, but she also laughs when they run away from the guards. After escaping, Rinuccio Palermini tries to retrieve the “corpse” so he can complete his assignment, but it’s gone. Rinuccio and Alessandro Chiarmontesi return to their homes, heartbroken by their failures. In the morning, each tells Francesca how hard he tried, apologizes for his failure, and asks for “forgiveness […] and love.” But since they both failed, she cleanly rids herself of each.
Alessandro and Rinuccio proved themselves to be faithful and brave lovers, and according to the logic of many of the other tales, Francesca would owe them both her love for having proved themselves worthy. Yet, she had the foresight to concoct an impossible mission for each, and so she was able to rid herself of them both. But it’s important to remember that the ability of a woman to get away with turning down a man in The Decameron is very much dependent on the storyteller and the woman’s other circumstances: in other tales, women are punished or raped for denying a man. The feminine empowerment at the heart of this tale isn’t a foregone conclusion, because of the misogynistic and antifeminist gender stereotypes that inform the tales generally. | <urn:uuid:f1b168ec-8f62-465f-8f83-eb8ab88e9a58> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-decameron/day-9-first-tale | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474361.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20240223053503-20240223083503-00500.warc.gz | en | 0.958663 | 1,538 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Timber framing has been practiced and refined for more than 1000 years now and in many different cultures. In each culture the wood species traditionally employed would have been the strongest, largest, and most abundant species available.
The Great Halls of England are timber framed using English oak. Colonial America saw use of Eastern white pine, spruce, maple, and the oaks. Timber framing in Appalachia added Tulip poplar and even American chestnut. Bald cypress joins the list for projects benefiting from a weather-resistant species. On America’s West coast Douglas fir, Western red cedar, Western white pine, the Redwoods, and Sugar pine all saw use in timber framed structures.
Modern technology and logistics has broken down traditional geographic barriers for these different species, and we’re able to bring these wood species to you and your timber framing projects. We work with a number of different species in our timber framed homes and pavilions, and can work with you to find the best species for your project.
Let’s briefly discuss the traits of the 5 commonly used woods in timber frame homes.
Bald cypress timbers are commonly available in lengths up to 24 feet. This species enjoys predictable lead times for projects. The wood is a very light tan in color and weathers to a uniform silvery gray. Paint and stains adhere well to Bald cypress. Bald cypress most often sees use in outdoor structures such as timber frame pavilions, mid-size farmers markets, porches, exterior awnings and decorative trusses where the species’ weather resistance helps insure long life.
Douglas fir is an abundant West coast species that sees wide use in heavy timber structures. This species is strong, available in a number of specifications including kiln dried and grade stamped, and can be supplied in very long lengths to 60 feet. West coast mills are sophisticated in their processing of timbers making lead times predictable and availability reliable. Paints adhere well to Douglas fir.
Stains perform well on Douglas fir timbers with the mild caution that the natural color of this species varies and care must be taken to insure uniformity of color. Pitch pockets that may ooze resin can be present in timbers that have not been kiln dried. Because of the timber sizes available, stamped timber grading, and relatively short lead times, Douglas fir sees wide use in both public and residential projects.
Eastern White Pine
Eastern white pine has often been used for timber frames and is available in large sizes. Eastern white pine timbers are not particularly strong and so timbers increase in size to handle loads applied.
This species accepts stains better than most, but it has little rot resistance and so should be used only in dry conditions. Eastern Tennessee is not the best environment for this type of timber frame.
Western Red Cedar
Western red cedar timbers are frequently specified for exterior applications because of its rot resistance and handsome appearance. This type of wood accepts most finishes fairly well.
Available in a variety of grades, specifications are reliable and grade stamping is routine. Timber sizes may be large to carry loads expressed. The wood weathers to a uniform gray color.
The White oak family of tree species includes Chestnut oak, Post oak, Species White oak, and a host of other distinct species. In the practice of timber framing little distinction is made between the different species and timbers are selected for appropriate grade and geographic availability.
Timber frames built of White oak are traditional--surface checking and all. (Checking results from uneven wood shrinkage as the timbers dry faster near the surface than in their core.) White oak timbers accept oil-based stains well and take natural oil finishes readily. Paints are not a good choice on any species of oak.
White oak timbers are a joy to work and often are the timber framer’s choice for many projects. While rot resistant, this family of species is best used inside as it weathers to uneven coloration in exterior applications. The only downside to working with this type of wood is that lead times can sometimes be long.
Other Wood Species
Wood species sometimes used in timber framing include the maples, Red oaks, Redwood, the Spruces, Tulip poplar (Tennessee’s State Tree), tamarack, and a variety of others. In earlier times, whatever grew in proximity to the structure being built was put to use.
If you're looking for more information about our timber framing process, check out our eBook, What You Need to Know About working with Timber Framers. We go into further detail about species of woods, the different ways you can work with a timber framing company, and more. | <urn:uuid:ac6ac679-c524-444a-8113-4aadef848559> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://info.homesteadtimberframes.com/blog/the-5-most-common-species-of-wood-in-timber-framing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549448095.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20170728062501-20170728082501-00718.warc.gz | en | 0.922657 | 965 | 2.734375 | 3 |
The Law on Alcoholic Beverage Control will be submitted to the National Assembly for consideration at the end of this year, aimed at reducing the rate of drinking related illness in the years to come.
Director General of the Hygiene and Health Promotion Department, Dr Phath Keungsaneth, said this week that the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with involved government, private and international organisations is drafting the law on alcohol control, which is expected to be presented to the assembly at the end of this year.
“If the law is approved by the assembly, activities on alcohol control should be implemented in the following year,” he said, adding that a prohibition on any forms of beer and alcohol advertising should be practiced following the law’s inception.
Apparently, girls serving beer to customers at certain restaurants will no longer be allowed. In addition, the new law will not allow beer shops to open near schools, educational institutes or temples.
So far, many countries around the world have already enacted laws on alcohol control in order to protect the health of their communities.
According to a survey conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Laos ranks number one out of the 10 Asean countries for alcohol beverage/beer consumption, with an average of 7 litres of alcohol equivalent consumed per person per year.
The survey also found that Lao women drink more alcohol than women in other Indochina countries.
Laos has many ethnic groups and each has its own traditions and culture but alcohol plays an important role throughout Lao society, the survey found.
The survey showed that many people spend six months a year (June to November) cultivating crops such as rice and sweet corn, with some of the crop used to make alcohol.
The rest of the year (December to May) is when many festivals and social events take place. These festivals provide plenty of opportunities for drinking, with people partying hardest over international New Year, the Chinese and Vietnamese New Year, Lao New Year, boat racing festivals and the rocket festival.
In addition, parties are held to celebrate a promotion, a new baby, a wedding, or a new house, while returnees are fervently welcomed home after a trip overseas.
Unsurprisingly the survey found that the high consumption of alcohol is a frequent cause of road accidents and domestic violence. It has dire effects on people’s health and often puts their safety in jeopardy, with road accidents maiming and killing many people each year.
In 2009, some 5,490 road accidents were reported in Laos, leaving 9,664 people injured and 753 dead. In 2010, the number of reported accidents rose to 5,802, with 11,128 people injured and 775 killed.
In 2011, a total of 6,541 accidents were recorded, leaving 11,503 people injured and resulting in 902 deaths. In 2012, the figures were slightly lower, with 6,164 accidents recorded in which 10,191 people were injured and 888 people were killed.
The WHO survey also found that the advertising of alcoholic beverages is on the increase in newspapers and magazines and on radio and television.
At the same time the number of bars, entertainment venues, hotels and guesthouses, which are all outlets for alcoholic beverages, is on the rise without restriction, making it all too easy for people to gather for innumerable drinking sessions.
Source: Vientiane Times | <urn:uuid:ee3e3043-a1b1-4f01-b344-9d9a8297f3ba> | CC-MAIN-2018-13 | http://jclao.com/na-consider-law-alcoholic-beverages/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257647892.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20180322151300-20180322171300-00305.warc.gz | en | 0.963462 | 694 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Seeing doesn’t always take eyes. The brittlestar Ophiocoma wendtii, a relative of starfish, can scan the sea floor, thanks to light-sensitive cells scattered across its skin, rather than by using eye-like structures, a study suggests.
The research, published on January 24 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, upends a long-standing hypothesis about how Ophiocoma sees its surroundings.
Although it has no brain, this reef-dwelling animal—consisting of five arms joined to a central disk—can detect light and move away from it. Ophiocoma’s skeleton, which is draped in a thin layer of skin, is covered in bead-like crystal structures, which scientists thought worked together as a big compound eye. By focusing light onto nerve bundles that researchers thought ran below these 'microlenses', the arrangement would allow the animal to form an image.
But when a team of evolutionary biologists took a closer look at the brittlestar’s skeleton, they realized that the tiny crystal structures probably had nothing to do with vision. The latest study offers “striking evidence” that contradicts this previous interpretation, says zoologist Gordon Hendler of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, California, one of the first scientists to come up with the idea of a compound eye in Ophiocoma.
“It’s a good example of how nature surprises us,” adds Todd Oakley, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who wasn’t involved in the research. “Sometimes, the closer we look, the more unexpected things we find.”
The researchers first confirmed that Ophiocoma could respond to visual cues. “Not only do they move away from light, but they can pick out a dark shade at a distance of about 40 centimetres and move towards it very rapidly,” says neurobiologist Lauren Sumner-Rooney at the University of Oxford, UK, who led the study.
When the team peered into the brittlestar’s body, they saw that the nerve bundles ran between, rather than below, the crystal structures—contrary to what they expected. Because of the crystal structures’ location, it’s unlikely that they can focus light onto the nerves, as previously thought, Sumner-Rooney says.
What’s more, the researchers spotted plenty of cells packed with light-sensitive molecules in the skin covering the skeleton of the brittlestar’s arms, but no such cells at the base of the skeletal crystal structures. Because these light-sensitive cells are in close contact with nerve bundles, they might be the ones responsible for detecting visual cues and sending the signal along the nerves, Sumner-Rooney says.
Exactly how the nerves produce a response, such as moving an arm away from light, is still unclear, says Elizabeth Clark, an evolutionary biologist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
A larger question is whether the brittlestars can resolve shapes. The researchers are conducting ongoing experiments that suggest they can, similar to animals equipped with eyes, Sumner-Rooney says.
Look, no eyes!
“There’s a growing understanding that the ability to see without eyes or eye-like structures, called extraocular photoreception, is more widespread than we thought,” says Julia Sigwart, an evolutionary biologist at Queen’s University Belfast, UK, and a study co-author. Many animals, including sea urchins and some small crustaceans, use this mechanism to sense their surroundings. Brittlestars are just the latest addition to the list.
“Sensing the environment and responding to a stimulus without having to wait for that signal to go all the way to the brain can save a lot of time,” Sigwart says. And the idea could inspire the development of robots and image-recognition technology that don't rely on a central control system, she adds.
As for the crystal structures that researchers thought acted as microlenses, “they’re just part of the skeleton,” Sigwart says. Their transparency and ability to focus light is “completely coincidental”, she adds.
But Hendler disagrees. “They could still conduct light into the skeleton,” he says. “I’m not ruling out the possibility that they have some optical function.”
This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on January 24, 2018. | <urn:uuid:8615a27c-9893-4ed3-b29d-a1a6bef0b580> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-brittlestars-see-without-eyes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224655244.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20230609000217-20230609030217-00434.warc.gz | en | 0.93479 | 955 | 3.984375 | 4 |
- slide 1 of 5
Hyperglycemia: Blood Sugar Levels
The phrases “fasting blood sugar”, “fasting glucose levels” and “fasting blood glucose” are used interchangeably and frequently in the diabetes community. Such blood sugar levels are determined after an individual has fasted for a period of eight hours. These fasting numbers are indicative of how much glucose (or sugar) is in one’s bloodstream. Individuals with prediabetes will typically be diagnosed as having type 2 diabetes if their blood sugars cannot be controlled.
Too much glucose suggests hyperglycemia, a condition that, if left untreated, can lead to diabetes complications, such as diabetic coma, retinopathy and diabetic ketoacidosis. In general, glucose levels that trigger fasting hyperglycemia are blood sugar levels over 90-130 mg/dL. However, some health care providers may diagnose patients with mild fasting hyperglycemia with fasting blood sugars greater than 109 mg/dL in adolescents and adults, and 100 mg/dL in prepubescent children, according to emedicinehealth.
- slide 2 of 5
High Fasting Blood Sugars: Hyperglycemia Causes
Blood glucose levels high in nature are the result of an overabundance of sugar in the bloodstream. Diabetes medications, such as metformin or insulin, aid in lowering blood sugar. Without the aid of medicinal therapy, high blood sugar will typically result.
Factors contributing to high fasting blood sugars include:
- Physically inactive or, by contrast, strenuous activity
- Overconsumption of food and calories
- Inadequate insulin or diabetes medication dosage
- Skipping diabetic medication
- Not following a personalized diabetic diet
- Taking certain medications from the following classes are known to raise blood sugar levels:
- Oral contraceptives
- Atypical antipsychotics
- Beta blockers
- Specific medications: Dextrose, diazoxide, furosemide, glucagon, epinephrine, lithium, isoniazid, nicotinic acid, triamterene and phenytoin.
- slide 3 of 5
Hyperglycemia: Treatment Options
Several high fasting blood sugars may warrant a physician advised treatment plan that includes drinking plenty of water to flush excess glucose out of his or her system, increasing physical activity, implementing a diabetic meal plan and making necessary medication adjustments for adequate glucose control.
- slide 4 of 5
Prevention Tips: How to Lower Blood Sugar
Physicians will assign blood sugar target ranges for their patients that are specific to their personal health situation. As a result, blood sugar levels are better maintained, thus, preventing hyperglycemia. To keep their glucose levels in check, diabetics should monitor their daily blood sugars through at-home blood sugar testing and quarterly in-office hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) testing. In doing so, they will gain an accurate perspective on their diabetes management.
Other preventative measures include incorporating frequent exercise into their routine and following a personalized diabetic diet that distributes carbohydrates throughout the day.
Disclaimer: The preceding information should not replace medical advice by a licensed physician.
- slide 5 of 5
MedicineNet. “Hyperglycemia and Diabetes”, http://www.medicinenet.com/hyperglycemia/article.htm.
Emedicinehealth. “High Blood Sugar (Hyperglycemia)”, http://www.emedicinehealth.com/high_blood_sugar_hyperglycemia/article_em.htm.
South Dakota Diabetes Prevention and Control Program. Recommendations for Management of Diabetes in South Dakota, 2008.
Mayo Clinic. “Hyperglycemia in Diabetes”, http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hyperglycemia/DS01168/METHOD=print.
Joslin Diabetes Center, http://www.joslin.org/.
American Diabetes Association, http://www.diabetes.org/.
Diabetes Forecast Magazine, http://forecast.diabetes.org/. | <urn:uuid:13e85b58-9dd1-4989-bbe6-466c98867ef8> | CC-MAIN-2018-22 | https://www.healthguideinfo.com/diabetes-complications/p109934/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-22/segments/1526794865863.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20180523235059-20180524015059-00302.warc.gz | en | 0.835207 | 861 | 3.34375 | 3 |
Did you know you can train your brain to look out for certain words?
It’s like a Google alert, but for your mind.
And if you want to be happy and feel fulfilled and less stressed, a word you need to create an alert for is “should.”
Because when we use the word “should” we are likely contributing to worriment, stress, and/or fear. We might pressure ourselves to fit into a mold or to do things we do not want to do.
Of course there are things we all don’t want to but need to do, “I really should take out the trash.”
Here we are focusing on should statements that limit us and bring unnecessary pressure and burden.
“I should be more… ,” or “I should be less….”
Should statements are a cognitive distortion. Think of cognitive as a fancy way of saying thinking. So should statements are a thinking distortion, or a warped thinking.
Cognitive distortions are common with those who have depression or anxiety. They come from unhealthy thought patterns that we have most likely learned from our environment.
Think of it, how many times as a kid were you told how little boys or little girls “should” act. Or how you “should” be or what you “should” look for in a career or a partner.
But the “shoulds” of other people are simply suggestions, not facts.
Of course, it’s reasonable for us to agree that we should take precautions when traveling to a new city. And we should try to get 7-9 hours of sleep.
The problem arises when the should statements attach to identity or bring pressure to be something we are not.
For example, “I should be more outgoing,” or “I should try to find more friends.”
Should Statements Create Inner Turmoil and Bring Us Away From Our Natural Being
People are unique. No two people look exactly alike. And we all have a unique fingerprint.
We acknowledge this with looks and fingerprints, but it’s still tough for some to consider this truth with personality and preferences.
So one person’s “key” to happiness is not necessarily another’s.
For instance, I have an aunt who thinks marriage is the key to life and happiness. She has a wonderful marriage and she enjoys seeing other people married.
She encourages me to get married, and will sweetened the pot by adding extras.
For instance, she said she would buy my wedding dress, then she said she would pay for half the wedding, then she added in furniture for the house.
As I got into my 20s, a lot of my friends were getting married. I thought I “should” get married. Even though it wasn’t what I wanted. So I went on dates and got caught up in trying to “find” someone.
I was miserable.
And I feel an inner turmoil and depression. While I was being true to myself and my internal beliefs (by not getting married). I was giving myself unnecessary pressure from external sources to do something I didn’t want to do but felt I “should” do.
My half assed attempts at dating failed because my heart wasn’t in it.
Finally, I acknowledged how damaging all of this was and I ditched the dating apps and moved forward.
Should Statements Keep Us From Our True Being
When I was growing up I was definitely, as they say, marching to the sound of my own drum.
Instead of being in a clique with other girls, I stayed home and watched Beakman’s world. I’d write in asking questions and he would write back! I loved to read and learn new things. And I had no desire to wear make-up or dress in my mother’s heels.
My father really liked this part of my personality, but he did not encourage my complexity. Because I also enjoyed signing and dancing, but I learned real quick it was something I “shouldn’t” pursue.
Other girls didn’t seem interested in talking about science, so I learned it wasn’t something I “should” be interested in. And my father disapproved of arts (not a high money yielding field) so I learned I “should” focus on business for my career.
I lived my life keeping things I was passionate about under a shield because of a pressure of what I “should” be interested in. This is one of the greatest regrets of my life.
And as a result, in my 20s I was horribly depressed.
I knew I needed a change. So I started reading and focusing on things I found interesting. And I started doing things that made me happy, not what I was told “should” make me happy.
My entire life changed. And the only thing I “should” be doing is working to be the best version of me. Oh yeah and taking out that damn trash.
So on a Friday night I just might be at a bar alone having a drink and reading a book. Some people think that’s super weird and not something I “should” do. But they can keep that to themselves because I’m busy reading…
Reading a getting free desert! I was reading and drinking a martini at a bar and the bartender sent me a dessert because he said he thought I was one of the most interesting people he’s ever seen. He said he’s never seen anyone so content and that it looked like I was living my best life.
Moral of the story: take out the “shoulds” and get free deserts!
How to Stop the Should Statements
Remember just some 900 words ago when I said you can create an alert in your mind?
That is what you can do to alert yourself to “should” statements.
When you have a thought that involves the word “should” determine if it is motivating you, “I should take out the trash,” or if it’s pressuring you, “I should be happy.”
If it’s motivational then go do the thing you should do and get it over with. If it’s a pressure should statement then reframe it.
For example: “The IG post said I should be happy because other people want what I have, but I am not going to invalidate my feelings.”
Ask yourself, are you doing something because you want to and because it gives you joy? Or are you doing it because you were told you “should” in order to keep up with social expectations? | <urn:uuid:423107bd-8c3b-4539-9779-585e05ea67bc> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://canamwill.com/2021/03/17/how-i-stopped-limiting-myself-by-rejecting-should-statements-and-how-you-can-too/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446711074.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20221206060908-20221206090908-00423.warc.gz | en | 0.969283 | 1,433 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Encryption is a proven and highly effective protection standard for all data types. To provide the best level of protection, deploy encryption across your IT infrastructure, including servers, storage, and networking. Encryption standards vary in complexity, and the sweet spot for excellent protection and firm performance is the AES-256bit cipher.
This article will discuss the top ways to use encryption throughout your IT architecture and discover how Atlantic.Net keeps our customer data safe and encrypted, even in highly regulated industries such as finance and healthcare.
Data Encryption Types
When implementing data encryption throughout your IT infrastructure, three data encryption types must be considered. Each type supports various encryption techniques that can implement in your IT environment. These include:
Encryption at Rest: Data at rest is any static data housed physically on computer storage in any digital form. The data resides directly on the infrastructure, most commonly saved to disk file systems in files, folders, USB sticks, and network shares.
Encryption in Transit: When active data traverses the network, it is in transit. Data moves from one application to another or when sending and receiving data over the Internet. Examples include encrypted corporate VPN traffic, SSL/TLS/DTLS certificates, and isolated encrypted networks.
Encryption When Live: Active data, such as production data processing in real-time, is considered live data. A synchronous database is an excellent example because vast amounts of live data are cached in memory and pagefiles. Unfortunately, in-memory data is threatened by complex vulnerabilities that target the hardware layer of your systems.
What Data Should I Encrypt?
Now we know the type of encryption techniques available, let’s consider the Top 5 places you can use data encryption within your IT architecture to offer the best levels of protection possible.
#1: Encrypt User Data: User data consists of any personal or business files used by your employees. All modern operating systems consolidate user data into a home directory saved locally, such as on a PC, server, or laptop hard drive. Depending on the employee’s location, user data is usually synced to a file server at the head office.
What would happen if the user’s laptop was stolen? Removing and installing the disk elsewhere would allow simple access to your private data if the hard drive is unencrypted. In addition, this approach can bypass operating systems access controls such as user login and file system permissions.
Changing file permissions is simple; however, the data would have been useless if you had encrypted the disk. Unfortunately, there are countless examples of how specific exploits and vulnerabilities can steal user data at rest. Therefore, make encryption of disks, files, and folders mandatory in your working environment.
#2: Encrypt VPN Traffic: Home and hybrid working have become the new normal for millions of workers across the United States. To do this safely, many use a secure transport mechanism and application layer protection to encrypt all traffic routed via a VPN.
Encryption provides confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity to protect data over an IPsec VPN connection. The VPN tunnel captures all traffic sent from point A to point B. The data is encrypted using TLS or DTLS protocols, forcing all VPN traffic to authenticate at both sides of the VPN Tunnel. This approach defends against replay, man-in-the-middle attacks, arp poisoning, and MIB dumps over wired and wireless networks.
#3: Encrypt Cloud Data Using KMS: Data stored in the cloud is well protected because of the enforced use of secret cryptographic keys. KMS products safeguard data at rest and in transit. Keys encrypt and decrypt files, folders, databases, servers, cloud storage, etc.
Have individual KMS keys for each cloud service to avoid using the same key for multiple systems. Ensure a solid security enclave by creating your own keys instead of using the default keys provided by the cloud hosting partner.
To further enhance security, enforce a mandatory key rotation policy by setting a predefined number of days to rotate (change) the key. This process ensures the entire cloud platform is secure and that cryptographic keys will not age extensively over their lifetime.
To further secure cryptographic keys, harden the ecosystem by generating keys on a TPM 2.0 crypto processor. TPM is additional hardware that installs directly into modern server hardware and is used to create complex encryption keys greater than 4096 bits
#4: Compartmentalize Data with Detailed Access Controls: Please classify data to avoid a severe risk to data integrity. For example, if your systems are compromised, a hacker can access all of your data if it’s in a single location. In addition, moving data around the infrastructure introduces a layer of complexity that provides additional security.
Combining this approach with tiered access controls and encrypting data with cryptographic keys introduces further security measures, ensuring that only authorized users and authorized server accounts access approved data. Creating this configuration is complex, but it dramatically reduces the risk to data integrity.
#5: Encrypting Cloud Storage and Data Destruction: Choose a Cloud Service Provider that encrypts data at rest, in transit, and live. Reputable providers will be audited and accredited to ensure these requirements are active. Encryption of shared storage and a policy on handling data destruction is essential. Hard disks fail, but it’s vital they are destroyed ethically and within a security framework.
Servers, laptops, and PCs all have a limited shelf life. Take a moment to consider what happens when you discard the hardware. Is the data encrypted, Is the unique key saved directly to the hardware? Do adequate access controls protect the discarded device? The only way to guarantee this is to invest in certificated destruction services; mobile contractors will shred hard drives and equipment on-site and provide certificates of the secured destruction.
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Aviation could potentially be run on sustainable fuels by 2050 according to British Airway’s Environment Manager.
But current aircraft design means that, while alternative fuels like hydrogen and solar are being developed, the main focus will still be on liquid fuels which fit current engine capabilities; and this means the often controversial use of biofuels.
Speaking to RTCC, Leigh Hudson said: “The aircrafts that are being designed now for the next 10 years are liquid fuel based, and although they have done a few projects around hydrogen and solar, it would need a big step change in the technology to enable us to change.”
British Airways have two main areas of focus in their biofuels programme. Their first major project – with American biofuels company, Solena – aims to bring a waste bioliquids plant to the UK, converting several types of waste material, destined for landfill, into aviation fuel.
The plant is expected to convert 551,000 tonnes of waste into 16 million gallons of jet fuel each year, and Hudson said it was a “good starting point for the company” as it removes the food-fuel tension and has the potential for up to 95 per cent lifecycle savings compared to conventional fuel.
Meanwhile in a separate partnership with Rolls Royce, the company are looking into new, innovative fuels, from sources such as algae – using novel technologies. Their aim is to stay away from crop based fuels, while there are still question marks surrounding their use.
“Where we can see a real sustainability benefit and a building capacity in a technology we will do that and where we’re not sure of the sustainability we will keep looking for the next big thing.
“I don’t think we’re confident enough about crop based biofuels currently to go down that route and while I still think there will be crops that will fulfil that function right now we’re just not convinced”, said Hudson.
Biofuels, once hailed as a solution to decarbonising the transport sector, are now treated with much more caution. Questions have been raised about their sustainability and their potential to cause deforestation and exacerbate food security problems.
WWF calls for companies who are investing in biofuels research to work with voluntary groups such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels, which address the social and environmental impact of biofuels.
László Máthè, from WWF International said: “Bioenergy isn’t inherently good or bad. Under the right conditions, it can help mitigate climate change and make reliable energy a reality for more people around the globe. However, under the wrong condition, it puts even greater stress on our plant’s already overtaxed resources.”
Friends of the Earth, however, want more focus to be placed on reducing the demand for air travel but halting airport expansion and promoting the use of video conferencing technologies and better rail services.
There are also still barriers to biofuel powered aviation. Recent tests, including recent flights by Thomson and Iberia, ran on 50 per cent biofuel in one of two jet engines – there is still work to be done before a flight can become 100 per cent biofuel.
Kerosene, currently used as jet fuel, contains specific compounds which interact with the aircraft system in a particular way, without which the airline can not be powered. Biofuels, while cleaner, do not contain these compounds and so must be mixed with conventional fuel.
Hudson, however, is positive about the future for aviation, and the potential for sustainable fuels. She said: “Aviation currently account for 10 per cent of transport fuels. Currently in Europe about three to four per cent of road transport is powered by biofuels. If we were to switch over what we are producing just in Europe now – not that it’s technically feasible, but say it were – it would cover half of the aviation fuel.
“The industry could decarbonise. We could be running the whole of aviation on sustainable fuels by 2050.” | <urn:uuid:5158e164-e30b-438a-8d39-30e08b8b5de0> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://www.climatechangenews.com/2011/11/04/aviation-could-run-on-sustainable-fuels-by-2050-says-british-airways/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579251776516.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20200128060946-20200128090946-00220.warc.gz | en | 0.963636 | 845 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Reporting science meaningfully in local languages requires more than a good dictionary. Bothina Osama shares tips on what works.
English is the language of science. Most international science journals are English, most scientific conferences adopt it and new scientific terms are almost always English.
Yet in many parts of the developing world few speak English. Often countries have multiple local languages; for example, South Africa has 11 official languages including English, and India 18.
The challenges are global — any journalist writing in a language other than English has to cope with much of their source information being in English.
But the problem is more complex if your language is poorly acquainted with the fast-developing world of science. French, German and Spanish have large, established scientific communities that have translated even the most technical terms. This is unlikely for a regional Indian language, for example.
But despite its difficulties, localising science by reporting in native languages — in print, radio or television — is crucial to get information about science to wider audiences, allowing communities to learn about scientific developments in a meaningful way.
This guide provides tips on how to report science in local languages, from getting translations right to developing relationships with the experts who can help you. While aimed at print journalists, the guide is relevant whether you are working in print, online or broadcast media.
Making sure you translate scientific terms and ideas as accurately as possible is perhaps the most important and difficult part of reporting science in another language.
Badly translated science leads to inaccurate and sometimes misleading stories. Even a small mistake can shake readers' trust in the whole story and discourage them from seeking local science coverage in future.
Remember that in translation, a simple mistake can spiral out of control. For example, in Arabic reports of research making sperm from stem cells taken from bone marrow, a potential treatment for male infertility, many outlets reported that it meant women no longer need men to reproduce.
And one journalist became even more confused. One way of translating 'bone marrow' into Arabic is to say 'the brain of bones'. However, the journalist translated bone marrow into 'bones of the brain', leading to a headline suggesting that women wouldn't need men to reproduce because they could derive sperm from the 'bones of their brains'.
You can make your translations more accurate by using two resources: dictionaries of scientific terms and trusted scientists who speak both English and your local language.
Don't depend on just one dictionary of scientific terms. They are not always great quality so look for consensus by checking your translation in at least two dictionaries. If these aren't available, or new terms appear too often, then gradually compile your own. The time and effort involved in documenting your own accurate translations will pay off.
It may be a good idea to check translations on the web, but again, don't rely on just one place or translation — look for consensus. Over time you'll recognise the most reliable sources.
Try to use more than one dictionary to cross-reference scientific terms
If you're struggling, contact local experts and ask them to help with the translation. It's also a good opportunity to check you've understood the idea correctly. A pool of local experts willing to help with translation is an invaluable tool.
You may find there isn't an existing translation for a word, term or idea, or that there are too many: in a language like Arabic, for example, one term can have three different translations (Egyptian, Moroccan and Syrian). This can lead to mistakes if, say, a Syrian journalist's work is edited by an Egyptian editor. If in doubt, try to foresee which terms could be confusing and discuss these with your editor.
When using a term that will be new to your readers, include the English beside your translation so that interested readers can look it up.
Some terms defy translation and you'll have to use English. If this happens, define the word once in your language then continue using the English term — you don't want your readers distracted from the point of the story by lots of references to its definition.
And don't forget: a picture is worth a thousand words. Illustrations and videos can help explain difficult terms.
Coverage of science in local media is often superficial, partly because experts see less value in local media, preferring to speak to national or international media. If you do get hold of a local expert for interview, many prefer to comment in English, either because of prestige or because it is the language they usually discuss their research in.
Scientists in North Africa and the Middle East are often happy to be interviewed in Arabic, but pepper their explanations with English scientific terms. If this is the case, don't hesitate to ask how to translate them. If you show you are trying to improve the standard of local science journalism, as well as local understanding of important scientific concepts, interviewees may be more willing to engage with you.
The usual rules for interview technique apply here: do your homework, choose your questions carefully, and don't finish the interview until you understand everything that was discussed. With time you will build a reputation as a responsible journalist and more people may be willing to speak to you and help you in future.
Try to conduct interviews with local experts in person
Conducting face-to-face interviews is an important way to build fruitful relationships. If you can't easily visit a researcher, try to do the interview by phone instead as this also builds relationships and allows you to ask on-the-spot questions about translations. Try to avoid email interviews — they don't build so much of a bond, and can make it more difficult to check translations (although they do have the advantage of ensuring accuracy in reporting).
If you have to interview via email, make sure your questions are clear because you might not get another opportunity to get extra information.
Know your audience
Just because you want people to read about science in their local language doesn't mean they want to. As with any kind of writing, you must make your stories attractive to your audience. This is all the more difficult if local science reporting is scarce: people may not be used to reading about it.
A good way to grab readers' attention is to give your stories a local context — what problems in their daily lives could this research alleviate (or exacerbate)? Only choose the most relevant stories and think hard about the angle you will take.
For example, in an area where crops are often damaged by pests, people will be more interested in a new plant breeding method if you link it to the possibility of breeding pest-resistant crops. Reported simply as a step forward for plant breeding, it could be overlooked.
To do this you need to know your audience. Find out what concerns them and monitor which articles resonate most.
But be careful not to link local issues to global science unless you know the link is justified. It's tempting, for example, when reporting on climate change, to use a local example of environmental change to hook your reader in. But don't suggest that recent changes in fish stocks are down to ocean acidification unless you have the science to back this up. This is where local experts can prove particularly useful.
Your job isn't only to translate English-language science news into your local language; you should also be identifying and reporting on research arising in your region that is relevant to your audience. Some of this may appear in English-language journals and some in local-language journals.
There aren't many scientific journals in local languages in the developing world but if you find some, they can be a goldmine of locally relevant research. You may find that the language is very technical and the relevance of some papers may be difficult to determine, so try searching databases or digests of local research, if available, using keywords of topics you know your audience is interested in. This is also where your trusted local experts can help.
Local universities and research institutes might produce press or communications materials in your local language. Even if they don't, try to build up relationships with people in these organisations who know when research comes out.
You could also access research in the so-called 'grey literature', which includes reports that haven't been peer-reviewed. In this case getting external comment is even more important. The research has not necessarily been accepted by the scientific community so should be approached with some caution.
Bring science home: plant breeding advances can be linked to pest-resistant crops, for example
The more you immerse yourself in your local research community, the more you will hear about new work. And remember: it's not always about news — investigative features about local research can deliver for your readers too.
Bridge the divide
Everyone has a right to know about scientific developments that will affect their lives, and almost always this means telling people about science in their own language. It's down to science journalists to bridge the linguistic divide and tackle the challenge of translating scientific jargon into language people can understand.
I've been covering science in Arabic for more than ten years and my advice is this: simplify and translate accurately without making your story superficial; make it relevant to your readers, and you will hook them in.
Bothina Osama is a Cairo-based science journalist and SciDev.Net's regional coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa. | <urn:uuid:d618254b-c3f5-4a4e-a91c-44019cb1c99b> | CC-MAIN-2016-07 | http://www.scidev.net/global/communication/practical-guide/how-to-report-science-in-local-languages-1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701145751.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193905-00022-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948013 | 1,892 | 3.15625 | 3 |
TOKYO (majirox news) – TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Co) is considering injecting nitrogen into a reactor containment vessel at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, TEPCO said on Wednesday.
They may start Wednesday night. It would prevent the stored-up hydrogen from exploding at reactor No.1, according to TEPCO. Injecting nitrogen can reduce the amount of hydrogen in the reactor containment vessel.
“This would be the first time TEPCO is taking action to prevent a critical situation from occurring,” said NHK nuclear expert Mizuno. “They usually wait until after something happens to take action.”
Operator Of Japan Nuclear Power Plant Says Radiation-Contaminated Water Stopped
The outflow of highly radioactive water into the ocean from the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has stopped after the injection of a chemical agent, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Co.) said Wednesday.
In efforts to stop the leak, TEPCO, injected 1,500 liters of ”water glass,” or sodium silicate, and another agent near a seaside pit where the highly radioactive water had been seeping through.
However, they will keep monitoring the radiation levels of the sea water to make sure there are not any more holes or cracks at the plant.
The nuclear plant has been damaged by the earthquake and subsequent devastating tsunami on March 11. | <urn:uuid:29491e06-64b3-4681-acb2-b6183ce61fa5> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | http://www.majiroxnews.com/2011/04/06/tepco-injects-nitrogen-to-prevent-explosion-in-reactor/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917120878.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031200-00067-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944119 | 296 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Dogs accompanied the armies of antiquity. If you ever get to Thessalonica, look at the top panel of the Arch of Galerius. On the left is a dog looking up at the horse and rider above it. Perhaps no more than a camp follower, but perhaps a dog that guarded the camp of his master once the army stopped for the night. In an Attic Black Figure vase from 540 to 520 BC, a dog stands amidst the warriors departing. Saying goodbye? Just as likely going with them. (Louvre F19) Then as now, dogs can be taught to take risks. Above is the side of a vase made about 500 BC showing a dog running beside, almost under, the horses pulling a racing chariot. (Tampa 86.35)
What did they do if they went to war?
Military functions of dogs have their origins in the uses dogs have had since the beginning of domestication. Aeneas, known as the Tactician, writing in the fourth century BC, describes using dogs for a range of purposes. On nights when a city is under siege, he recommends tethering them outside the wall (άριστον δ'εν τοιαυταις νυξιν έξω του τειχεος κυνας προσδεδέσθαι νυκτερευοντας) so they can detect spies approaching and deserters trying to flee, and so that their barking will wake any guards who have fallen asleep. (Aeneas 22.14) The guard dog below in a mosaic from Herculaneum that is tied to a hoop high on the wall has generally been assumed to be guarding a house, on the belief that the Vesuvians and Herculaneans were only interested in themselves, but the military symbols might argue that the dog was outside the city or perhaps guarding a camp.
Polyaenus, describing a siege in 385 BC, tells how dogs stopped traitors from aiding the enemy:
“While Agesipolis was besieging Mantineia, the Lacedaemonians were joined by their allies, who were sympathetic towards the Mantineians, but were obliged to help the Lacedaemonians because they were at that time the leading power in Greece. Agesipolis was informed that the allies were secretly supplying the defenders with whatever they might need. To prevent this happening in future, he let loose a number of dogs around the camp, and particularly around the part which faced towards the city. This stopped the communications with the defenders; because no one ventured to cross between the camp and the city, for fear of being discovered by the barking of the dogs.” (Polyaenus, Stratagema, 2.25)
Dogs could accompany human guards on their rounds outside a city wall, as Aeneas says they did before the Battle of Naxos in 376 BC. (Aeneas 22.20; see also Vegetius, IV.26) During defensive maneuvers inside, Aeneas advises keeping the dogs chained up (δεσμειν) lest they attack and harass the troops. (Aeneas 38.2-3)
Dogs might have to be silenced for certain maneuvers. Aeneas says that for making secret sorties against an enemy encamped outside the walls, the dogs would have to be kept from barking and the cocks from crowing. He says they are to be rendered temporarily mute by cauterizing some part of their mouths (επικυσαντα τι του σωματος). (Aeneas 23.1-2) Hopefully the guard dogs would be brought inside and locked up to minimize the need for this. Something of the reverse of this situation was a usage Darius made of dogs to deceive the Scythians. Darius left his camp, but tied up the dogs so that their barking and baying convinced the Scythians he was still in the camp. (Sextus Julius Frontinus, Strategemata, 1.5.25)
The numbers of dogs used for guard work were not small. Plutarch, in his Life of Aratos (24.1), says that, in 243 BC, the Achaeans guarded Acrocorinthos with 400 soldiers and 50 dogs and as many handlers (πεντηκοντα κυσι και κυνηγοις ισοις). Dogs on the column of Marcus Aurelius probably reflect guard dogs that were brought by the Roman Army in the Danubian campaign. The dogs are shown in the drawing, by Pietro Bellori from a publication of 1704, coming ashore from ships during the invasion.
Soldiers might be accompanied by dogs in battle. Aelian in his Miscellaneous History (XIV.46) states regarding a battle from the eighth century BC:
“The Magnesians, who border the Mæander, warred against the Ephesians and every member of the cavalry brought a dog and a slave. When the enemy came near, the dogs fell upon them first, then the slaves with bows and arrows, and finally the masters.”
This sort of coordinated use of dogs to attack an enemy in a group suggests some level of training, and specifically of attack training.
A painted chest in the tomb of Tutankhamun shows two dogs in battle below the pharoah's chariot, evidencing the use of dogs in battle before 1300 BC. In the section of the chest shown above the dogs bite the heads of their victims. They look more like hunting dogs than war dogs, and it is possible that the artist has put the greyhound-like animals in an environment where they would never have been. The second dog looks out from the painting directly at the viewer, allowing us to meet his gaze for eternity. Perhaps the pharoah's own dogs were immortalized by an artist anxious to please his benefactor.
In a passage in his History of Animals (VII.38), Aelian describes dogs soldiering with their masters (συνεστρατεύοντο), mentioning one that fought with his master at Marathon and was portrayed on the Painted Colonnade in Athens with his master. The poet Valerius Flaccus describes the Caspians streaming forth, their pack of dogs dashing no less swiftly at the trumpet’s blare, joining their masters in battle. (Argonautica VI.107-113) Pliny describes the king of the Garamantes as being escorted back from exile by 200 dogs that did battle for him. (Natural History, VIII, 61) Herodotus says that Xerxes brought Indian hounds for his invasion of Greece (VII.187)
Strabo refers to the Celts using dogs bred for the chase in war as well. (IV.5.2) This likely means they were used in battle. The Alexander Sarcophagus in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum shows a dog under a horse at full gallop, the dog oblivious to the danger of running between the horse's legs as it breaks to the right.
Pliny says the Colophonii and the Castabalenses had faithful cohorts of dogs that fought in the front rank and never refused battle. (Natural History, VIII, 61) Polyaenus writes that when Alyattes, king of Lydia, fought the Cimmerians in the sixth century B.C., he brought fierce dogs that fell upon the barbarians and injured many of them (Stratagema 7.2; see also 7.9, using dogs on the front line defensively). The great frieze of the Temple of Zeus at Pergamum shows a battle against the giants in which dogs aided the gods. The Molossian in the section shown below might be mistaken for a lion were one not to look closely at the animal’s tail.
Pliny describes a dog that would not leave his master’s side after he died in battle, driving away birds and beasts of prey. Another starved to death in mourning, and yet another threw himself on his master’s funeral pyre. Though not in a war, Pliny tells of a dog that, when thrown food, took it to the mouth of his dead master, and when his master’s body was thrown into the Tiber, the dog jumped in the rushing water and tried to keep him afloat, something a great crowd watched. (Natural History, VIII.61)
Dogs were used as messengers in antiquity, and were used for this as recently as World War I, electronics having now relieved them of this function. Aeneas says that messenger dogs were used in Epirus, ancient home of the Molossian. He describes how this was done:
“In Epeiros, dogs were widely used as follows. A dog would be taken away from home on leash and a collar with a letter sewn inside put around its neck (περιεθηκαν περι τον αυχενα ιμαντα, εν ώ επιστολη ενερραπτο); then it would be released, at night or during the day, and would inevitably return to its owner. The Thessalians did this too.” (Aeneas 31.31-2)
Polyaenus describes Philip of Macedon using hunting dogs (θηρευτικας κύνας) to pursue barbarians fleeing into the Balkan mountains, finding most of them. (Stratagema, iv.2.16) This is a very early instance of using dogs to track humans rather than game. Ionnes Zonaras, a Byzantine chronicler, describes using dogs from Italy to track men and cattle in 231 BC (κύνας εκ της Ιταλίας μετεπεμψατο ευρινας, και δι’ εκείνων την στίβον και των ανθρωπων και των βοσκηματων ευρων πολλα απετέμετο), something bloodhounds were doing on England's border with Scotland in the time of King James. (VIII.18) E.S. Foster, in referring to the passage by Polyaenus, describes the dogs as bloodhounds, but hunting dogs is the most that can be made of the Greek. In neither of these instances is it certain that the dogs were following a specific track. Both passages seem more like area searches, as when modern police dogs look for a suspect who has fled a crime scene, going on the attack once they have found someone hiding.
Forster says that the only function ancient war dogs did not perform was Red Cross work.This is less true now. Although Forster was writing decades after Otto Kalischer discovered that dogs could be trained to recognize specific chemicals, he was writing well before this was put to practical use to create bomb, narcotics, and arson dogs. Still, much of what they do for us now they were doing for us then, and often paying the ultimate price for this service.
Sources: J.M.C. Toynbee (1973). Animals in Roman Life and Art. Cornell U. Press. Ithaca; D. Whitehead (translator and commentator) (1990). Aeneias the Tactician. Oxford U. Press, Oxford; M. Lemish (1996). War Dogs: Canines in Combat. Brassey’s London; S. Menache (1998). Dogs and Human Beings: A Story of Friendship. Society & Animals 6(1). E.S. Forster (1941). Dogs in Ancient Warfare, Greece & Rome, 10(3), 114-7; G.B.A. Fletcher (1941). Word on Dogs in Ancient Warfare, Greece & Rome 11(31), 34; Aeneas Tacticus (Loeb Classical Library 1923); Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae: Ioannis Zonarae, Annales (Bonnae Impensis ed. Weberi 1844).
For a description of Kalischer's work and the evolution of scent detection, see Police and Military Dogs (Taylor & Francis/CRC Press, forthcoming October 2011). Thanks to Richard Hawkins, Brian Duggan, L.E. Papet, and John Grubbs for many helpful suggestions. | <urn:uuid:e6e2f088-ebce-43ec-a0ce-0ee91d65252f> | CC-MAIN-2015-22 | http://doglawreporter.blogspot.com/2011/06/war-dogs-in-ancient-military-strategy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-22/segments/1432207928754.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20150521113208-00194-ip-10-180-206-219.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962785 | 2,749 | 3.734375 | 4 |
Wisdom and Sentimentalism
One of the greatest factors which can blur one’s wisdom is sentimentalism. This is a quite harmful state of mind which is inimical to the proper functioning of human reason.
Indeed sentimentalism is an explicit danger to reason. It exercises control over the faculty of reason to the point of negative sensible judgments. Under the sway of emotions, a sentimental person can easily engage in unwise and imprudent deeds. A believer, on the other hand, always keeps his emotions under the command of reasoning.
The concept of love, for instance, may have two separate dimensions; it may be either emotional or rational. The sentimental person feels a profound attachment for people or objects who truly do not deserve affection. As is prevalent in many cultures - especially the eastern cultures- a deep devotion is demonstrated to those who pay no respect to one’s devotion or who give pain in return for sincere love.
On the contrary, the love of a believer is always based on solid grounds. In the object of his love he primarily identifies the existence of “attributes of faith” or “attributes of a believer” as defined in the Qur’an. A believer never shows affection to anyone who is unworthy of being loved.
O you who believe! Do not take My enemies and yours as friends (or protectors), offering them (your) love, even though they have rejected the truth that has come to you, and have (on the contrary) driven out the Prophet and yourselves (from your homes), (simply) because you believe in Allah your Lord! If you have come out to strive in My way and to seek My good pleasure, do not take them as friends, holding secret converse of love (and friendship) with them: for I know full well all that you conceal and all that you reveal. And any of you that does this has strayed from the straight path. If they were to get the better of you, they would behave to you as enemies, and stretch forth their hands and their tongues against you for evil: and they desire that you should reject the truth. There is for you an excellent example (to follow) in Abraham and those with him, when they said to their people: “We are clear of you and of whatever you worship besides Allah: we have rejected you, and there has arisen, between us and you, enmity and hatred for ever, unless you believe in Allah and Him alone... (Al-Mumtahina, 1-4)
The above words of Allah explain the grounds for it being irrational to feel love for unbelievers. Such an attitude can be explained only by sentimentalism.
Many other verses in the Qur’an advise giving careful consideration to the dangers of feeling love for unbelievers. The story of Prophet Noah sets an example for this subject; Noah asked for forgiveness of Allah for his son who did not worship Him and prayed that he be saved from the flood. Allah told Noah that his son was also among the unbelievers and that he (Noah) should not offer him his love:
So the Ark floated with them on the waves (towering) like mountains, and Noah called out to his son, who had separated himself (from the rest): “O my son! Embark with us, and do not be with the unbelievers!” The son replied: “I will take myself to some mountain: it will save me from the water.” Noah said: “This day nothing can save from the command of Allah but those on whom He has mercy! “And the waves came between them, and the son was among those overwhelmed in the Flood. ...And Noah called upon his Lord, and said: “O my Lord! Surely my son is of my family! And Your promise is true, and You are the most just of Judges!”He said: “O Noah! He is not of your family: For his conduct is unrighteous. So do not ask of Me for that of which you have no knowledge! I give you counsel, lest you act like the ignorant!”Noah said: “O my Lord! I do seek refuge with You, lest I ask You for that of which I have no knowledge. And unless you forgive me and have mercy on me, I shall indeed be lost!” (Hud, 42-47)
The message of the verse is apparent: Even if the immediate family members are in question, the believers do not feel an attachment for unbelievers. It is only wise to love people who really deserve love. Moreover, a believer never develops a feeling deep in his heart for someone who goes astray.
The wives of Noah and Lut were also among the unbelievers who deserved to be severely penalized by Allah. The people of Lut went astray and, hence, they were utterly destroyed. Just before the destruction, the angels came to Lut telling him to abandon the city and to leave his wife behind. Without a moment’s hesitation, Lut obeyed the command:
(The Messengers) said: “O Lut! We are messengers from your Lord! By no means shall they reach you! Now travel with your family in the remaining hours of the night, and let not any of you look back: but your wife (will remain behind): To her will happen what happens to the people. Morning is their time appointed: Is not the morning nigh?” (Hud, 81)
Lut had fully obeyed the command of Allah. This is exactly the type of behaviour that one can expect from a believer. Having a sentimental attachment for those who disobey the judgement of Allah is not an attribute that one can see among believers:
You will not find any people who believe in Allah and the last day, loving those who resist Allah and His messenger, even though they were their fathers or their sons, or their brothers, or their kindred. For such He has inscribed the faith in their very hearts, and strengthened them with a spirit of His own. And He will admit them to Gardens beneath which rivers flow, to dwell therein (for ever). Allah will be well pleased with them, and they with Him. They are the party of Allah. Truly, it is the party of Allah that will achieve felicity. (Al-Mujadila, 22)
The essence of this attitude, so purified of emotion, is no doubt the understanding of love which is peculiar only to believers. Allah informs us about the different concepts of love held by believers and unbelievers in the following verse:
Yet there are men who take (for worship) others besides Allah, as equal (with Allah): They love them as they should love Allah. But those of faith are overflowing in their love for Allah.If only the unrighteous could see, they would know that to Allah belongs all power, and Allah will be stern in retribution. (Al-Baqara, 165)
As Allah states in the verse, believers truly love Allah. The affection they feel for people is merely a reflection of their love for Allah. They love only believers,because believers are those people “who truly adopt the moral framework the Qur’an presents man with.” Unbelievers, on the other hand, live according to their whims and desires. In this sense, they follow the path of Satan. Hence, it is impossible for believers to feel close to them. Unbelievers, on the other hand, are inclined to have affection for people or objects individually. They assume everything to have an existence independent of Allah. In the Qur’an, this is called “associating partners with Allah”, or in other words, paganism.
In the Qur’an, non-emotive behaviours demonstrated by believers is not limited only to love. There are many other rational kinds of behaviours recounted in the Qur’an. The following are all examples to such kinds of behaviours ; the mother of Moses left her baby floating in the river without any hesitation when she received inspiration from Allah (Al-Qasas, 7); the believers restrain their anger and pardon men (Al-E-Imran, 134); and do not despair over matters that pass them by (Al-Hadid, 23); and spend from what they most dearly love.(Al-Imran, 92).
However, one point needs further clarification here: not being sentimental does not in any way mean being insensitive. On the contrary, believers are tender-hearted people. The attributes of the Prophet Abraham are related in the Qur’an: “Abraham was most tender-hearted, and forbearing.” (At-Tawba, 114). What is criticized about sentimentalism here is its negative aspect prevalent in the culture of an ignorant society. In a sentimental way of thinking, emotions completely cloud the faculty of judgment and make one develop unsound reasoning contrary to the principles of the Qur’an. In this culture, not the spirit but the negative side of the soul stirs up these emotions.
In a community, various examples of such an attitude can be observed: sentimentalism displayed by young girls is a typical example. Being under the influence of emotions, a young girl loves the image of a man rather than his character and spirit. This is no doubt due to the mentality indoctrinated in her by the society. However, lessons drawn from experience lead eventually to wisdom. Mostly after spending only a short time with him, the young girl realizes the negative, or inhumane side of the man she loves. | <urn:uuid:8406b2dd-966a-43f7-b4b7-8a36de9fae11> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.harunyahya.com/en/books/962/The-Basic-Concepts-In-The-Qur%E2%80%99an/chapter/12429/Wisdom-and-sentimentalism | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246661675.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045741-00219-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966901 | 1,987 | 2.5625 | 3 |
When experiencing high levels of stress, having a strong immune system can keep your body healthy and operating properly. However, sometimes trying to stay healthy can feel equally as stressful. Prioritizing self-care doesn’t have to be a burden or a chore. There are several fun, simple ways to balance your immune system and reduce your stress at the same time.
How Your Immune System Works
Your immune system defends your body against outside invaders such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and toxins. The lymphoid organs, thymus, lymph nodes, spleen and bone marrow work together to block, break down and remove threatening substances.
Two Parts of The Immune System:
- Innate Immune System: Immediate response phagocytes that are inherited and active at birth.
- Adaptive Immune System: Secondary response T and B lymphocytes that are activated by exposure to threats and develop slowly throughout life.
The Innate Immune System relies on genes inherited from parents to detect and anticipate threats. The Adaptive Immune System relies on personal memories and experiences to detect and remember threats.
If the Adaptive Immune System is working properly, it regulates itself and accurately identifies beneficial vs harmful substances. However, autoimmune diseases and immunodeficiency disorders can cause overactive or under-active threat responses. When the immune system is out of balance, it can attack the body’s properly functioning cells and tissues. Common symptoms such as allergies and asthma can indicate a weak immune system.
Balance Is Key
The key to balancing and regulating the adaptive immune system is to practice exposing yourself to more healthy substances and environments. A nutritious diet, moderate exercise and consistent sleep can help regulate your immune system to detect threats accurately. Too much caffeine, sugar and alcohol can trigger too many reactions or even dull them.
If you’re always feeling stressed, your immune system can be overwhelmed with constant activity. The more comfortable you are in your environment, the less your body may feel threatened. The more you can engage in your environment in a balanced way, the more your adaptive immune system can improve threat detection accuracy and keep you safe.
4 Fun Ways to Balance Your Immune System
1. Bask in Nature
Enjoying fresh air and sunlight is an easy way to balance your immune system. Go for a walk, ride a bike or set up a picnic. If you aren’t able to go to a park, try simply sitting by a tree or some flowers in your yard. Plants naturally clean the air by taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. Read a book or listen to music for an hour while you bask in NatureRx.
University of Illinois Environment and Behavior researcher Ming Kuo, researched nature’s ability to enhance immune system functionality.
“Exposure to nature switches the body into “rest and digest” mode, which is the opposite of the “fight or flight” mode. When the body is in “fight or flight” mode, it shuts down everything that is immediately nonessential, including the immune system.
When we feel completely safe, our body devotes resources to long-term investments that lead to good health outcomes–growing, reproducing, and building the immune system. When we are in nature in that relaxed state, and our body knows that it’s safe, it invests resources toward the immune system.”
Sunlight is also a great source of Vitamin D which can boost your immune system. Just 15 minutes of sun exposure can reducing respiratory inflammation, boost immunity and increase overall health.
2. Move and Groove
Allowing your body to be adaptable and flexible can help keep your immune system balanced. Try some light, creative forms of exercise like dance, tai chi or yoga to reduce stress and improve balance.
As stated in the The Power of Dance: Health and Healing study, “Dance may promote wellness by strengthening the immune system through muscular action and physiological processes. Dance conditions an individual to moderate, eliminate, or avoid tension, chronic fatigue, and other disabling conditions that result from the effects of stress.”
Dance psychologist, Dr Peter Lovatt reports that “You appear to get a much bigger release of endorphins when you dance than during other forms of exercise; it also connects with the emotional centers in the brain. For many people, dancing prompts an emotional release.”
His study found that dancing along to music for even just five minutes can boost happiness and improve creative-thinking patterns.” Whether you’re in your room, in the shower, or on-the-go, allow yourself to have a short dance party, for health’s sake!
3. Soak and Savor Scents
Enjoying a long, hot bath is a wonderful way to relieve stress and calm your immune system. Sensory and aroma-therapy can reduce stress and bring your body back to the “rest and digest” state. Simply adding a cup of epsom salt to your bath is an easy way to utilize th natural exfoliant and anti-inflammatory remedy. Epsom salt contains magnesium and sulfate which can help release toxins from your body.
You can also boost your bath benefits by adding essential oils such as eucalyptus and tea tree. They have antiviral properties that may protect against viral infection. You can also inhale oils using a diffuser or absorb them by adding a couple drops to your hand sanitizer or soap. Studies also show that lavender essential oil has a calming effect, so it can help ease anxiety and reduce stress.
4. Laugh Out Loud
Watching your favorite comedy show or YouTube video is a fun, easy way strengthen your immunity! Laughter can increase oxygen intake, stimulate your heart, lungs and muscles, and increase endorphins. Laughing also activates T-cells which are the secondary response defenders in the adaptive immune system.
There are also correlations between laughter and the lymphatic system. “When you laugh, the diaphragm becomes a powerful pump for your lymphatic circulation…Lymphatic vessels carry fluid through your body and helps your lymph nodes to clean and filter this fluid, removing waste products, dead cells, and even unwanted microorganisms. Maintaining clean body fluids is important because these are necessary for you to be at your best. Increased lymphatic flow = an elevated, improved immune system.”
When you laugh, make sure to allow yourself to go full ham. Don’t hold back your belly laughs and allow yourself to make a sound. The bigger the laugh, the bigger the health benefit can be. In a Humor and Immune Function Study, researchers found that “the subjects who laughed out loud during the humor video had significantly increased immune function.”
Whether you’re dancing in nature, or laughing in the tub, carving out time to enjoy yourself can have long lasting effects on overall health. The more you practice slowing down, savoring your surroundings and being present in the moment, the more you can help calm and regulate your immune system.
Contact Natural Bio Health Today
If you’re concerned about your ability to fight off infection, we offer a variety of supplements to boost immunity. You may also consider reaching out to an expert. Our team is dedicated to helping you understand the numerous factors that may be keeping you from reaching your optimal health.
Our team of specialists understands our patients’ concerns about office safety during the time of COVID-19. We are proud to offer telemedicine services through video and phone calls. We are also seeing patients in person at our offices, but are abiding by new, strict safety precautions. To schedule your appointment, contact us here. We serve Texans in Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Round Rock, and College Station. | <urn:uuid:85592b3d-0098-46e3-8b71-3a810cb7aad3> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://naturalbiohealth.com/4-fun-ways-to-balance-your-immune-system/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439738425.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20200809043422-20200809073422-00166.warc.gz | en | 0.937393 | 1,611 | 3.140625 | 3 |
As human beings, we have a series of rights in life that we are entitled to and enshrined in law. But what entitles us to these rights and is there a difference between human rights and civil rights? Read on to find out!
Human rights are thought of as the most fundamental rights every person on earth can have. These rights are said to cover the basic necessities of human existence. Human rights were officially created post World War II to prevent the horrors of the Nazi regime reoccurring.
Some examples of rights afforded to everyone equally include the right to life (Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and the right to be protected from torture (Article 3 ECHR). These rights are absolute in nature and for that reason cannot be varied by any state. However, there are 16 so-called human rights in total and some of these rights are known as qualified rights. Qualified rights can be varied in certain circumstances.
Conversely, we are entitled to certain civil rights by virtue of being a citizen of a certain country, nation or state. Civil rights are in place to protect citizens from discrimination and to grant them certain freedoms in that nation, for example, due process and free speech could both be described as civil rights. Civil rights, therefore, are decided between the governing bodies in certain states and the citizens. Other examples include the right to vote, freedom of religion and freedom from arbitrary arrest. In this way, civil rights tend to protect a citizen’s freedom to do things.
Yes. For example, as highlighted above the vast majority of human rights are qualified rights, meaning your protection under the right can depend on certain factors. For example, Article 12 ECHR (the right to marry) can be conditional on national laws on marriage. This makes the qualified human rights, other examples include Article 10 ECHR (freedom of expression) and Article 9 ECHR (freedom of thought), set up much like civil rights.
The best example of any practical difference between civil rights and human rights is prisoners. Prisoners are entitled, like all human beings, to fundamental human rights like freedom from torture (Article 3 ECHR). However, they are stripped of some civil (or qualified) rights like freedom to move, and their right to vote.
Human Rights are universally protected in all countries, but they are internationally protected via international law. In 1948, the United National General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, cementing rights in international policy. In Europe we can also look to the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights to protect these interests.
However, domestic law does exist in the UK to facilitate these international agreements i.e. The Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA). If your human right is breached, the domestic courts must try and give effect to the law in a way which does not breach your right.
If this is impossible, however, the court may make a declaration of incompatibility against this law. This does not automatically change the law but gives a sort of signal to the lawmakers in Parliament that this may require amendment in the future to prevent breaches.
The protection of civil rights depends on the state you are located in. In the UK, civil rights are protected in common law and statute as well as broadly under the same act as above, (HRA). Therefore, they are enforced by court challenges and can even reach the European Court if the domestic court is not sure how best to proceed. However, in other countries, for example, the USA and where a written constitution exists, civil rights are dealt with under the constitution.
Words: Alicia Gibson
How much do you know about human rights law? Test your knowledge using our quick quiz.
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Loading More Content | <urn:uuid:2a868431-0952-4f0c-b053-233349711bf8> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://www.thelawyerportal.com/blog/whats-the-difference-between-civil-rights-and-human-rights/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046154163.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20210801061513-20210801091513-00038.warc.gz | en | 0.952727 | 768 | 4.125 | 4 |
With only five days to go before Christmas, most people are rushing into the shops to purchase those last minute items.
The average shopping centre in the pre-Christmas week is an auditory and visual cacophony. Not only are there people EVERYWHERE, there are fairy lights, baubles, and tinsel everywhere! Then there are those Christmas carols, the auditory froth of tinny Christmas melody bubbling incessantly in the background. It’s all enough to make you want to shop on-line.
It’s such a shame the way Christmas carols have been subjugated and exploited for commercial gain. So many of the old Christmas carols are euphonious in their own right, with a lyrical profundity that encapsulates the deeper meaning of Christmas in just a few words.
In fact, music in general is fundamental to us as a language of emotion. The linguist Steven Pinker once said that music was “auditory cheesecake,” a purposeless byproduct of language development. But music is deeper than language. Neuroscience suggests that we’re hardwired to interpret and react emotionally to music from before we’re able to crawl, and well and truly before we develop language. Music activates most of our brain, from our frontal lobe and temporal lobe to process the sounds across both sides of the brain. Music also activates our visual cortex, our motor cortex, our memory centres and, not surprisingly, our deep emotional brain centres. It’s only if the song has lyrics that our language processing areas are activated.
Music has been shown to affect our physical bodies and our minds. Music helped to reduce blood pressure, heart rate and anxiety in heart disease patients, while upbeat music can have a very positive effect on our emotional wellbeing, so long as the music was happy and upbeat. Music that we expect to be happy also results in an increase of dopamine, the neurotransmitter of pleasure.
So the emotional connection that music carries is very important for our overall joy.
Listening to music can increase our joy. While the research supports the improvement in mood that comes from listening to happy, upbeat music, there’s a place for ‘sad’ or ‘angry’ songs too, which can connect directly to our souls and provide a type of catharsis that goes beyond trying to express our emotions through the clunky limitation of speech.
Music can help to scaffold memories, especially emotional memories. Remember the music playing when you had your first kiss? Or the song that they played at a friends funeral? Playing those songs related to happy times in your life can help you to recall and re-experience those uplifting emotions if you’re feeling down.
Music creates opportunities for healing. Hospitalised children were happier during music therapy (in which all the children were involved and could play with simple musical instruments like maracas and bells while a leader played the guitar) than they were in standard play therapy when their options puzzles and toys.
But more than anything, music increases joy through the power of human connection. Music is emotionally deeper than language and the social bond that music can create between people is much stronger than any intellectual or verbal connection. There have been numerous studies that demonstrate this – people who go to concerts and who go dancing report higher levels of subjective wellbeing than those people who listen to music on their own. People who create music together have higher levels of happiness and find other activities more pleasurable overall, an effect which has been demonstrated in groups of both adults and school children.
So if you want to increase your joy, engage with music, and use music to engage with other people … even if it is singing Christmas carols. | <urn:uuid:ddb11322-6eed-4385-981f-fd1938fe8012> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://cedwardpitt.com/tag/carol/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224654031.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20230608003500-20230608033500-00456.warc.gz | en | 0.959949 | 762 | 3.515625 | 4 |
At least in terms of dollar investments
Glaciers in western China have receded by nearly 3,000 square miles, state-run news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday, in a startling acknowledgement of climate change striking closer to home.
Xinhua reports that glaciers in western China have receded by 15% over the past 30 years, according to a climate change study by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Researchers said they had observed fissures in ice sheets covering Mt. Everest and warned that if the glaciers continued to melt at their current rate, it could severely reduce water flows to Asia’s major riverbeds.
The report comes amid a diplomatic thaw between China and the U.S. regarding climate change negotiations, which have periodically been a source of friction between the world’s two largest carbon emitters. China has bridled at international commitments to cut total levels of emissions, preferring to peg emissions targets to economic growth. But last month the two countries pledged to discuss steeper cuts in emissions.
It may be just talk, but with cities shrouded in thick blankets of smog, food contaminated with heavy metals, and the occasional mass grave of pigs turning up in waterways, China’s policymakers face mounting public pressure to tackle the nation’s soot-stained image.
And appearances can be deceiving. Beneath the pollution scandals, China has raced ahead of the rest of the world in renewable energies with a whopping $54 billion investment in 2013. It is not only the world’s biggest carbon emitter, it is also the world’s biggest supplier of wind, solar and other clean energy technologies.
Green on the outside, sooty on the inside, China is uniquely positioned to not only profit from the renewable energy policies in the rest of the world, but test run a few policies at home as well. | <urn:uuid:25da6f71-146b-4e4a-a1d4-7889a2fd6aea> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://time.com/107541/this-is-how-far-ahead-china-is-of-the-u-s-on-green-energy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469258950570.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723072910-00015-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94528 | 381 | 3.015625 | 3 |
You probably know how the phrase “canary in the coal mine” came into being, but it doesn’t hurt to repeat it. Before there were other ways of monitoring for dangerous gases in coal mines, like carbon monoxide, miners took caged canaries with them into the tunnels. If gases were present, they would kill the canaries first, perhaps giving the miners a chance to escape. They were what we might call an early warning system today.
There were some big ole yellow canaries in the school bus lanes of Wake County’s public schools last week. The first days of the year were a disaster, at least in terms of transportation. Children waited for buses that ran late or never came at all. In the afternoons, some kids didn’t get home until 6:00 or later. The school system fielded thousands of calls from irate parents.
It turns out that the county had decided to take 52 of its 933 school buses off the road this fall, even though thousands more students were expected in the school system. You will probably not be surprised to learn that the reason was money. The county hoped to save $5 million in operating costs and get back $3 million in lost state revenue.
The state’s General Assembly has cut hundreds of millions of dollars from public school funding. Legislators gave great flexibility to local school systems in deciding how to absorb those cuts. Of course, that also let legislators off the hook for making the cuts and shifted the responsibility for adequate school funding down to local officials.Wake County apparently decided to save some of the lost funding by cutting back on school buses. As Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata noted, “If I don’t take the $5 million out of transportation then the likelihood is that it’s got to come out of schools somewhere. So how do I do that? That’s a fair number of teachers.” While the effort to save teachers’ jobs is laudable, it came with consequences.
School buses are the canaries in this picture, an early warning system regarding school budget cuts. Reductions in funding to local school systems are having various results: fewer teachers and teachers’ aides, larger classes, older textbooks, delayed maintenance, and, yes, fewer buses. Have no doubt about it: those changes will damage the public schools and lower the quality of education our children get there. But it will often take months or years for the harm to be evident, or for it to be measurable. It took only a couple of days, however, for the impact of budget cuts on school buses to show up. It wasn’t a pretty scene, and Wake has already announced that it is adding back 34 of its moth-balled buses.
At least for now, their work as canaries is over. But you do wonder where the $5 million is coming from now, how it will harm children’s educations, and how long it will take for us to notice.
–George Reed, Executive Director | <urn:uuid:490b0815-ac5a-4152-bdbf-44af085c3896> | CC-MAIN-2015-40 | http://www.ncchurches.org/2012/09/canaries-in-the-school-bus-lane/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-40/segments/1443737916324.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20151001221836-00069-ip-10-137-6-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976851 | 629 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Discrete Mathematics for Information Technology
F. Chung Graham
Nowadays, information technology has profoundly changed the way we live and the way we think. Problems arising in the entire spectrum of information technology have an increasing influence on mathematics, and especially on discrete mathematics. Basically, discrete mathematics is the branch of mathematics that studies the underlying principles which govern discrete structures and the binary universe. Such principles are essential and effective in the implementation of algorithms, performance analysis, and information management. As pointed out in the PITAC report , one of the current grand challenges is to gain an understanding of large, diverse and complex discrete systems. To build a sound scientific foundation for the information age requires collective interdisciplinary efforts, to which discrete mathematicians can contribute in numerous ways. Before discussing relevant topics, it is worth mentioning several general aspects of discrete mathematics.
(a) Theory and techniques in discrete mathematics are well-coupled with applications and implementations. For example, coding theory goes hand in hand with data compression, protocols and communication security. Graph theory is directly involved in algorithmic design and analysis, performance analysis of communication networks, etc.
(b) A particular method can often be applied to many disparate problems. For example, pattern matching occurs in problems in computational biology and information retrieval, among many other areas. Indeed, discrete mathematics can help bring different areas together, and cross-fertilization typically occurs.
(c) Discrete mathematics serves as a bridge linking mathematics to communications and computing. For example, spectral methods are increasingly used in graph algorithms for dealing with massive data sets. Previously, a large part of traditional mathematics has been heavily motivated by physics. With information technology as the driving force, the golden age of mathematics is right ahead of us if we can tap into the wealth of knowledge of the past and create new mathematics for the future. Discrete mathematics can play a key role in this connection.
1. Graph embeddings and massive graphs
The basic problem here is to embed one graph into another, subject to preserving distances (or other invariants) while at the same time minimizing the cost. Of particular interest are the fundamental relations between a graph and its subgraphs (e.g., containment, avoidance, partitioning, etc.) When only partial information about the graphs is available or the sizes of the graphs are prohibitively large, many new problems and research directions emerge. For example, visualization and representation of massive data sets can be viewed as projecting a large graph into a small chosen graph. The inverse problem of constructing a graph from its projections has applications in memory management, computational biology, and Internet tomography, among others.
2. Random graphs and random-like graphs
There has been a great deal of progress in understanding the evolution of random graphs, the threshold functions. and the behavior of random graphs. In the other direction, it is highly desirable to be able to construct random-like graphs. This requires a deeper understanding of the structure of graphs. How can one derive one graph property from another and, in particular, how can the behavior of a graph be controlled by its basic invariants? The answers to such basic questions are among the main tools for designing and analyzing randomized algorithms and approximation algorithms.
Massive graphs that occur in communication or computation share a great number of similarities with sparse random graphs, but there are also differences. Such realistic massive graphs provide a test-bed for the modeling and analysis of graphs.
3. Combinatorial optimization
The historical roots of combinatorial optimization lie in problems in economics, the planning and management of operations, and the efficient use of resources. Many more technical applications came into focus and were modeled as combinatorial optimization problems, such as scheduling of production, capital budgeting, transportation system planning, and design of survivable and fault-tolerant networks. Today combinatorial optimization has increasing impact in large scale optimization problems arising in e-commerce and in the planning of next generation networks.
4. Coding theory and cryptology
Coding theory enables the reliable transmission and storage of data. Cryptology is a classical subject that deals with the security and integrity of messages. The information era has expanded the range of applications to include authentication, integrity, and protocols for providing other information attributes, including time-stamping, availability of service, and protection of intellectual property. There is an excellent report of the Working Group on Cryptology and Coding Theory on the current developments, broadening applications, and strong growth in this area.
5. Discrete and computational geometry
The basic relations among points, lines and shapes in the plane and multidimensional spaces provide tools for a variety of areas, in particular, in graphics and data management. The accelerating needs of these application areas pose open-ended challenges for discrete and computational geometry.
Combinatorial algorithms and graph theory are among the major tools in pattern matching, sequencing, and the analysis of genetic codes. In particular, discrete probabilistic methods and Markov chains have been extensively used for dealing with a wide range of problems in identifying discrete structures and processing massive data in many problems arising in computational biology.
Here we mainly focus on the research aspects of discrete mathematics. The educational aspect of discrete mathematics is equally important and deserves extended coverage on its own.
References Report of President's Information Technology Advisory Committee, National Coordination Office for Information Technology Research and Development, February 1999. [ http://www.itrd.gov/ac/report/] Back to Text
Report of the Working Group on Cryptography and Coding Theory, National Science Foundation, April 1997. [ https://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?nsf9814] Back to Text
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Use a variety of punctuation marks throughout your stories, but keep in mind that certain punctuations have a specific purpose.
Comma is the most powerful punctuations of all! Use a comma wherever necessary to prevent possible confusion or misreading. Sometimes, just by moving a comma the meaning may change. For example,
Woman, without her, man is nothing.
Woman without her man, is nothing.
Insert a comma to separate lists of three or more items. For example,
She bought a dress, a pair of shoes, and scarves.
Sarika offered a coconut, haldi and kumkum, and flowers to the goddess.
Insert a comma after conjunctions — and, for, or, nor, but, yet before the last item.
Turmeric is a necessary, important ingredient, and it imparts great taste to most of the Indian recipes.
If you have quote marks in your manuscript, you need to make sure that all other punctuations are tucked inside of the quote marks. For example,
“Speak English!” said the Eaglet. “I don’t know the meaning of half those long words, and, what’s more, I don’t believe you do either!”
Use your Microsoft Word’s thesaurus sparingly. Sometimes, there are subtle meanings attached to words suggested on their list, which may not bring the best of your intended sentence. For example,
The room had a weird smell.
Here the writer doesn’t intend to specify whether the smell was bad or good. However, one often feels pressurized to come up with a different word to avoid repetition or monotony. During such occasions, when you look up the Microsoft Thesaurus, it recommends words like─stink, stench, reek, tang, odor, aroma, scent, and perfume. If the writer is unaware of the meaning of certain words from this list, and ends up choosing it with the intended meaning of smell, then the writer has a sentence that doesn’t mean the exact same thing.
If the writer replaces the word with stink, the sentence would mean that the room was smelling bad, which is not the intended meaning.
If the writer still wishes to use the word, it is a good idea to further cross check using a dictionary.
Use active voice often; the subject of sentence performs the action. In passive voice the subject receives the action. For example,
Active voice: The mother loves her baby.
Passive voice: The baby is loved by her mother.
Here, clearly, the sentence with active voice is more effective as the subject, mother directly states her action on the object, baby.
If you are using numbers, please spell out all numbers between zero to ninety nine except for addresses and time. Everything onwards 100, should be in numerical form. Roman numbers can stay as is. For example,
He read ten pages from that book.
The address is, G-9, Karishma Society, Ganesh Nagar, Pune 411038
The book has 200 pages.
It’s 12 p.m.
She is reading a book, Medical Reference, Vol. I.
Make a new paragraph for a new idea.
Think English! Do not translate thoughts from one language to another. Even though it could be a good start, don’t be in a hurry to finalize the sentence. It often sounds like poor translation from your native language.
Always, always keep a grammar book at hand for reference while writing.
Remember, if you care for grammar, half the battle is won! | <urn:uuid:fcf53fd3-89df-4b9a-ae7c-b6f8a6cded7b> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | http://apkpublishers.com/get-published/grammar-checklist/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917121752.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031201-00200-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927353 | 762 | 3.328125 | 3 |
African amphibians make extreme parental sacrifice: The skin off their backsANN ARBOR, Mich.---Just as baby mammals depend on their mothers' milk, the young of the African amphibian Boulengerula taitanus nourish themselves by stripping off and eating the fat-rich outer layer of their mothers' skin, according to an international team of researchers that includes University of Michigan biologist Ronald Nussbaum.
The findings are reported in today's issue (April 13) of the journal Nature.
Hatchlings of B. taitanus---a legless amphibian that looks something like an earthworm---are born with specialized teeth for peeling and eating skin. Their mothers' skin is specially modified to be particularly nutritious, and the young depend entirely on this food source for perhaps as long as four weeks, Nussbaum said.
"This form of post-hatching parental care, in which the mother provides nutrition to her hatchlings via her skin, has never been seen before in amphibians, and may be unique among vertebrates to this group of amphibians," said Nussbaum, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and a curator in the U-M Museum of Zoology. "Some cichlid fishes are known to provide their hatchlings with nutrition through skin secretions, but this does not include skin feeding."
Earlier observations of another species in the same order of amphibians foreshadowed the latest discovery. In the 1990s, the same research team found that newborn Siphonops annulatus had teeth and stayed with their mothers for some time after hatching. Those observations, coupled with the unusually pale skin color of mothers caring for young, led Nussbaum and colleagues to speculate that S. annulatus hatchlings fed on glandular secretions from the mother's skin, but the scientists never observed such behavior.
In the current study, the team collected 21 B. taitanus females along with their broods and put the animals into small, plastic boxes filled with soil to simulate natural nesting conditions. Then they observed and videotaped interactions between young and their mothers.
"We observed eight episodes of skin feeding by different young from five different broods," Nussbaum said. "In each episode, the young moved over and around their mothers' bodies, vigorously pressing their heads against their mothers while repeatedly opening and closing their mouths. They used their lower jaws to lift and peel the outer layer of the mother's skin."
Studies of the females' skin revealed that the outer layer is up to twice as thick in brooding females as in non-brooding females and is full of nutritious fat.
Amphibians are a diverse lot when it comes to parental care, which may include hiding, guarding, carrying and feeding offspring. Among caecilians---the order of amphibians to which B. taitanus and S. annulatus belong---some lay yolky eggs and tend them until they hatch but invest no energy in feeding the young after hatching; others bear live young that fend for themselves after birth.
In those that bear live young, fetuses are equipped with specialized teeth---something like those of B. taitanus and S. annulatus---that are thought to be used for scraping secretions and cellular material from the lining of the mother's oviduct. The skin-feeding behavior seen in B. taitanus may represent an evolutionary intermediate between these two reproductive modes, Nussbaum said.
The discovery of this never-before-seen behavior also highlights the importance of conservation efforts, Nussbaum said. "Concerns have been growing about amphibian populations that appear to be declining worldwide. Our discovery underscores the need for further studies to better document the amazing diversity of amphibian life history strategies and greater efforts to conserve it."
Nussbaum collaborated on the research with Alexander Kupfer and Mark Wilkinson of the Natural History Museum in London, UK; Hendrik Muller of Leiden University in the Netherlands; Marta Antoniazzi and Carlos Jared of Laboratorio de Biologia Celular, Instituto Butantan in Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Hartmut Greven of the Institut fur Zoomorphologie und Zellbiologie der Heinrich-Heine-Universitat Dusseldorf in Dusseldorf, Germany.
The researchers received funding from the European Union and the Natural Environment Research Council.
For more information:
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 30 Apr 2016
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:5c2bcbb1-4ee1-4c43-a9dc-133203c9f479> | CC-MAIN-2016-36 | http://psychcentral.com/news/archives/2006-04/uom-aam041306.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-36/segments/1471982292608.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160823195812-00275-ip-10-153-172-175.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918406 | 946 | 3 | 3 |
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This course provides students with the knowledge and skills to utilize Windows PowerShell for administering and automating administration of Windows based servers.
After completing this course, students will be able to:
- Explain how Windows PowerShell works.
- Use Windows PowerShell as an interactive, command-line shell.
- Use Core Windows PowerShell cmdlets for everyday purpose.
- Customize the output using Windows PowerShell Formatting Subsystem.
- Explain what Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is and how it can be used from Windows PowerShell.
- Manage Active Directory objects using Windows PowerShell cmdlets.
- Write basic Windows PowerShell scripts that execute batches of commands.
- Work with Windows PowerShell’s background jobs and remote administration functionality.
- Master the scripting language of Windows PowerShell.
- Use advanced techniques related to structured programming within Windows PowerShell.
- Automate Windows Server 2008 R2 Administration using Windows PowerShell.
- Identify the best practices for working with Windows PowerShell.
This course is intended for IT Professionals already experienced in general Windows Server and Windows Client administration, including Active Directory administration. No prior experience with any version of Windows PowerShell, or any scripting language, is assumed.
Before attending this course, students must have:•Experience with Windows networking technologies and implementation.•Experience with Windows Server administration, maintenance, and troubleshooting•Experience with Active Directory technologies and implementation, including Group Policy.•Experience with Windows Server 2008 Web application server technologies and implementation.
Module 1: Fundamentals for Using WindowsPowerShell v2 This module provides background on WindowsPowerShell v2 and where it fits into the Windows technology family. Italso covers installation and configuration of Windows PowerShell. Itfamiliarizes students with the interactive shell console, and shows how tooperate and interpret the built-in help system. This module focuses on shell’sdiscoverability features, including the online help system and cmdletinventory. Finally, this module describes how the Windows PowerShellpipeline works at a basic level. Lessons
Module 2: Understanding and Using theFormatting System This module explains how the PowerShellformatting subsystem works, and shows how to customize the output ofcmdlets. It covers the rules that the shell follows for formattingobjects by default, and explains how to use the four formatting cmdlets –and their parameters – to customize and control the output displayed on-screenor written to a file, printer, or other output destination. Lessons
- Windows PowerShell Technology Background and Overview
- Windows PowerShell as an Interactive Command-Line Shell
- Using the Windows PowerShell Pipeline
Module 3: Core Windows PowerShell Cmdlets This module describes several core cmdlets thatare used in many different administrative tasks. This module alsocovers the basics of filtering objects that are in the PowerShellpipeline. It explains advanced pipeline techniques includingpipeline parameter binding and in-pipeline object manipulation. Lessons
- Understanding the Formatting System
- Using the Formatting System
Module 4: Windows Management Instrumentation This module explains what WindowsManagement Instrumentation (WMI) is, how it works, and how it can be used fromwithin Windows PowerShell. It describes the structure and security of WMI, andhow to query WMI information both from local and remote computers. It alsoexplains how to invoke WMI methods to accomplish configuration changes andother tasks, and how to write commands that respond to WMI events triggered bythe operating system. Lessons
- Core Cmdlets for Everyday Use
- Comparison Operators, Pipeline Filtering, and Object Enumeration
- Advanced Pipeline Techniques
- Windows Management Instrumentation Overview
- Using Windows Management Instrumentation
Module 5: Automating Active Directory Administration
This module introduces the concept of ActiveDirectory administrative automation. It explains how to retrieve,create, modify, move, and remove objects in the Active Directory. Itfocuses on PowerShell-centric techniques rather than scripting, and heavilyleverages on basic and advanced pipeline techniques covered inprevious modules.
Module 6: Windows PowerShell Scripts
- Active Directory Automation Overview
- Managing Users and Groups
- Managing Computers and Other Directory Objects
This module introduces basic Windows PowerShellscripts that execute a batch of shell commands in a single operation. It pointsout the security concerns associated with scripting, and how to configureand control the shell’s security settings that relate to scripting. Italso explains how to write basic scripts that execute batches of commands,and how to parameterize scripts in order to make them more flexible in avariety of situations.
Module 7: Background Jobs and RemoteAdministration
- Script Security
- Basic Scripts
This module explains how to work withWindows PowerShell’s background jobs and remote administrationfunctionality. It shows how to create, monitor, and manage localbackground jobs, and receive results from completed jobs. It alsocovers how to configure Windows PowerShell remoting both locally and in adomain environment. This module describes how to create and manage sessionconnections to remote computers, and explain how to use those sessionconnections in one-to-one remote shell instances as well as one-to-many remotecommand invocation. Finally, it shows how to invoke remote commandsas background jobs, and how to manage those jobs and receive results from them.
Module 8: Advanced Windows PowerShell Tips and Tricks
- Working with Background Jobs
- Using Windows PowerShell Remoting
This module introduces several advanced WindowsPowerShell techniques. While these techniques do not contribute directly to anyparticular business goal, they do enable more efficient use of the shellitself, which leads to more efficient administration and automation. Itshows how to use profiles to consistently configure the shell environment,and how to use several techniques for effectively re-using andsharing existing modularized scripts. It also points out bestpractices and techniques related to script documentation.
- Using Profiles
- Re-Using Scripts and Functions
- Writing Comment-Based Help
Module 9: Automating Windows Server 2008 R2Administration
This module gives an opportunityto complete several real-world administration tasks related to WindowsServer 2008 R2. It provides minimal instruction in how to use thecmdlets and techniques required to accomplish the lab portion of this module;instead, it lets students rely on the skills they have learnedin the preceding modules of this course.
Module 10: Reviewing and Reusing Windows PowerShell Scripts
- Windows Server 2008 R2 Modules Overview
- Server Manager Cmdlets Overview
- Group Policy Cmdlets Overview
- Troubleshooting Pack Overview
- Best Practices Analyzer Cmdlets Overview
- IIS Cmdlets Overview
One of the core skills administrators need is the abilityto take a script that someone else has written, review that script tounderstand what it does, and identify areas of that script that may need to bemodified to run in their environment. Those skills are exactly what this moduletries to build.
- Example Script Overview
- Understanding Scripts
Module 11: Writing Your Own WindowsPowerShell Scripts
This module explains the concepts and techniquesrelated to structured scripting and programming within WindowsPowerShell. It describes how to create, manage, and usevariables. It introduces the complete “scripting language” ofWindows PowerShell, which consists of several programming constructs. This modulealso covers advanced topics and techniques related to structured programmingwithin Windows PowerShell. It explains how to trap and handle errors thatoccur during script execution, and also describes the propertechniques and practices for debugging a script that is not executing asexpected. It shows how to modularize scripts into a variety of reusablefunctions, with the ultimate goal of producing a function that mimics thestructure of a shell cmdlet.
- Variables, Arrays, Escaping, and More Operators
- What is Scope?
- Scripting Constructs
- Error Trapping and Handling
- Debugging Techniques | <urn:uuid:a631bdd9-1d43-4e9a-bddf-c0d0b477e8f0> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | http://acend.com/catalogue_course.php?cid=249 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084887660.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20180118230513-20180119010513-00264.warc.gz | en | 0.792355 | 1,640 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Pins are typically used under primarily shear loading. They are separated into two groups: semipermanent and quick release.
These general design rules apply to all types of semipermanent pins:
- Avoid conditions where the direction of vibration parallels the pin axis.
- Keep the shear plane of the pin a minimum distance of one diameter from the pin end.
- Allow pins to protrude the length of the chamfer at each end for maximum locking effect in applications where engaged length is at a minimum and appearance is not critical.
Removal and installation of semipermanent pins require the application of pressure or the aid of tools. The two basic types of semipermanent pins are machine pins and radial-locking pins.
Machine pins are separated into four categories: dowel, taper, clevis, and cotter.
Hardened and ground dowel pins are standardized in nominal diameters ranging from 1/16 to 7/8 in. Standard pins are 0.0002 in. oversize on the nominal diameter; oversize pins are 0.001 in. oversize.
Standardized pin lengths vary with nominal diameter, ranging from a minimum of 3/16 in. (1/16-in. size) to a maximum of 5 in. (7/8-in. size).
Some dowel pins are threaded and tapered for use with a tapered sleeve. The threaded section allows the pin to be pulled from the sleeve, and a special sleeve puller removes the sleeve. This reusable dowel-and-sleeve combination can properly align holes as much as 0.001 in. oversize. It is said to speed machine-shop operations by eliminating knockout holes, eliminating the need to turn dies to remove dowels, and enabling machinists to remove and replace die sections while the die is in the press.
Taper pins have a taper of … in./ft measured on the diameter. Basic dimension is the diameter of the large end. Diameter d of the small end is given by d = D - 0.02083 L where D = diameter of the large end, in., and L = pin length, in.
The standardized series of numbered pin sizes ranges from No. 7/0 (0.0625-in. large end) to No. 10 (0.7060-in. large end).
Clevis pins have nominal diameters from 3/16 to 1 in. Corresponding shank lengths vary from 19/32 in. for 3/16-in. size to 2 5/8 in. for 1-in. size. Standard material is steel, either soft or cyanide hardened to meet service conditions.
Cotter pins come in a number of point styles and have been standardized into 18 sizes with nominal diameters ranging from 1/32 to in. Available materials include mild steel, brass, bronze, stainless steel, and aluminum.
Radial-locking pins include grooved and spiral-wrapped types. Grooved straight pins have a locking action provided by parallel, longitudinal grooves uniformly spaced around the pin surface. Rolled or pressed into solid pin stock, the grooves expand the effective pin diameter. When the pin is driven into a drilled hole slightly larger than the nominal pin diameter, elastic deformation of the raised groove edges produces a secure force fit with the hole wall.
Standard groove-pin sizes cover a range of nominal diameters from 1/32 to in. with lengths from 1/8 to 4 in. Materials include cold-drawn, alloy, and stainless steels, and copper alloys.
Low-carbon-steel groove pins have load capacity in single shear from 110 lb for a 3/64-in. size to 10,300 lb for a -in. size. Higher shear strength may be obtained from heat-treated pins.
Locking force developed by a groove-pin assembly is a function of pin diameter and effective length of engagement. Best results under average assembly conditions are obtained with holes drilled the same size as the nominal pin diameter. Undersize holes must be avoided. This practice can lead to deformation of the pin in assembly, damage to hole walls, and shearing off the raised groove edges, thus reducing holding action and preventing reuse of the pin.
When the part material is appreciably harder than that of the pin, chamfered or rounded hole edges should be specified to avoid shearing the expanded pin section. Shearing also may be avoided by using through or case-hardened pins. Hardness of the pin and the metal fastened should be equal.
Spring pins use the resilience of hollow cylinder walls to hold in place. The two main types are spiral-wrapped and slotted tubular pins. Both pin forms are made to controlled diameters greater than the holes into which they are pressed. Compressed when driven into the hole, the pins exert spring pressure against the hole wall along their entire engaged length to develop locking action.
Spiral-wrapped or coiled pins come in standard sizes that cover a range of nominal diameters from 1/32 to 3/4 in., in lengths from 1/8 to 6 in. Metric diameters range from 0.8 to 20 mm. Standard materials are: 70/30 brass, copper alloy 25, heat-treated 1070 to 1095, carbon steel, stainless steel (302 and 402), and 6150 alloy steel.
Locking force of a spiral-wrapped pin is a function of length of engagement, pin diameter, and wall thickness. Pins are available for light, medium, and heavy-duty applications.
Slotted tubular pins come in standard sizes from 1/16 to in. and lengths from 1/8 to 5 in. Standard materials are heat-treated carbon steel, corrosion-resistant steel, and beryllium copper. Readily adaptable to manual assembly techniques, these pins offer a tough, resilient, self-locking fastener that can withstand high shock and vibration loads.
Spiral-wrapped pins have an advantage over slotted pins in automatic assembly because they cannot interlock during feeding. They may also resist vibration and absorb shock better than slotted pins because the coil design can flex after assembly, while the slotted version cannot flex after the gap is closed.
For maximum shear strength, the pin should be assembled so that the gap is in line with the direction of load and 180° away from the point of application. The maximum shear strength value provided by this orientation represents an increase of about 6% over the minimum value. | <urn:uuid:79eef940-864b-431b-9732-bdeac0f4f1f2> | CC-MAIN-2015-48 | http://machinedesign.com/print/basics-design/semipermanent-pins | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-48/segments/1448398452385.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20151124205412-00007-ip-10-71-132-137.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905314 | 1,353 | 3 | 3 |
Despite our tendency to consider Earth as static, it is actually a dynamic and ever-changing planet. Wind, water, and ice erode and shape the land. Volcanic activity and earthquakes alter the landscape in a dramatic and often violent manner. And on a much longer timescale, the movement of earth’s plates slowly reconfigures oceans and continents.
Each one of these processes plays a role in the Arctic and Antarctica. We’ll discuss each in general and specifically in the polar regions.
Wind, water, and ice are the three agents of erosion, or the carrying away of rock, sediment, and soil. Erosion is distinguished from weathering — the physical or chemical breakdown of the minerals in rock. However, weathering and erosion can happen simultaneously. Erosion is a natural process, though it is often increased by humans’ use of the land. Deforestation, overgrazing, construction, and road building often expose soil and sediments and lead to increased erosion. Excessive erosion leads to loss of soil, ecosystem damage, and a buildup of sediments in water sources. Building terraces and planting trees can help reduce erosion.
In the Arctic and sub-Arctic, glacial erosion has shaped much of the landscape. Glaciers primarily erode through plucking and abrasion. Plucking occurs as a glacier flows over bedrock, softening and lifting blocks of rock that are brought into the ice. The intense pressure at the base of the glacier causes some of the ice to melt, forming a thin layer of subglacial water. This water flows into cracks in the bedrock. As the water refreezes, the ice acts as a lever loosening the rock by lifting it. The fractured rock is thus incorporated into the glacier’s load and is carried along as the glacier slowly moves.
Glacial erosion is evident through the U-shaped valleys and fjords that are located throughout the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. Glacial moraines are formed as a glacier recedes, leaving behind large piles of rock, gravel, and even boulders. Moraines may form at the foot (terminal moraine) or sides (lateral moraine) of the glacier or in the middle of two merging glaciers (medial moraine).
Photos courtesy (T to B) of Skylar Primm, Geir Halvorsen, and Martin Talbot (Flickr).
Coastal erosion has become a major issue in recent years in the Arctic, with Alaska’s North Slope losing as much as 30 meters (100 feet) per year! Climate change is thought to be the underlying cause. As the climate warms and sea ice melts, more of the sun’s energy is absorbed by ocean water. As this heat is transferred to the land, the permafrost (frozen soil) thaws, making the coast vulnerable to erosion from wave action and storms (which are more frequent due to warmer temperatures and open water). This video from the University of Colorado Boulder and the U.S. Geological Survey shows time-lapse images during one month of crumbling.
In Antarctica, katabatic winds play a large role in erosion. This type of wind occurs when high-density cold air builds up at high elevations (on the ice sheets, for example) and moves downhill under the force of gravity.
Katabatic winds in Antarctica and Greenland are intensely cold and fast, often reaching hurricane speed. You can hear these fierce winds in this YouTube video
The winds in Antarctica carry small grains of sand that scour and erode the exposed rocks, resulting in unusual shapes and formations. These oddly shaped, eroded rocks are called ventrifacts.
The theory of plate tectonics describes the motions of earth’s lithosphere, or outermost layer of hard, solid rock, over geologic time. Plate tectonics provides scientists with a great deal of information about the polar region’s past.
Earth’s lithosphere is broken into seven major and many minor tectonic plates. These plates move in relation to each other, slowly changing the location of earth’s continents and oceans.
Geological evidence from Antarctica supports the theory that North America and Antarctica were connected approximately one billion years ago in the global supercontinent Rodinia. The continents eventually broke apart, merging again approximately 200 million years ago in the supercontinent Pangaea. Fossil evidence from this time period confirms that Antarctica was connected to Australia and South America and much warmer than it is today.
The movement of the tectonic plates also means that they are associated with much of the world’s volcanic and seismic activity.
A volcano is simply an area where magma, or molten rock, from the earth’s mantle reaches the earth’s surface, becoming lava. Most volcanoes occur at plate boundaries, where two plates are moving away (diverging) or together (converging). A few volcanoes like the Hawaiian Islands form from a hot spot, or a weak spot in earth’s crust, where magma forces its way to the surface.
Volcanic eruptions may be explosive (violent) or effusive (passive), depending on the lava chemistry (amounts of silica and dissolved gases). Silica is a mineral found in nature as sand or quartz. High levels of silica mean very viscous (thick) lava, and low levels mean more fluid lava. Dissolved gases build up inside the volcano, much like a can of soda or other carbonated beverage. The higher the level of gas, the more pressure that builds – and the more violent an explosion. The combination of silica and dissolved gas levels determines the type of eruption and shape of the volcano.
Volcanoes are classified into four types, based on their lava chemistry and shape.
|Shield Volcano: A shield volcano has low levels of dissolved gas and silica in its magma. Its eruptions are effusive, and the very fluid lava moves quickly away from the vent, forming a gently sloping volcano. Mauna Loa in Hawaii is an example.|
|Cinder Cone Volcano: A cinder cone volcano has low silica levels and high levels of dissolved gas, resulting in fluid lava that erupts explosively as a result of the immense pressure built in the magma chamber. A cinder cone volcano erupts by shooting fountains of fiery lava high in the air, which cools and forms a steep-sided conical structure. Lava Butte in Oregon is an example.|
|Lava Dome Volcano: A lava dome volcano has high silica levels and low dissolved gases in its magma. This results in effusive, viscous lava that forms a rounded, steep-sided mound. Lava domes are often created after an explosive eruption, which released much of the dissolved gas in the magma. The lava slowly continues to flow out of the volcano, forming a rounded, steep-sided mound. Since the 1981 eruption of Mt. St. Helens, a lava dome has been forming inside the crater of the volcano.|
|Composite Volcano: A composite volcano has high levels of dissolved gas and silica and erupts explosively. Composite volcanoes often resemble steep-sided mountains before erupting. During violent eruptions, it can seem as if the whole top of the mountain has been blown off. Eruptions often include pyroclastic material (ash and lava fragments), leaving the volcano to collapse inward and form a crater. Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier in Washington are examples.|
Images courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Largely unexplored, the Gakkel Ridge runs underneath the Arctic Ocean. Scientists have discovered volcanic craters and evidence of surprisingly violent eruptions in the recent past.
Antarctica, too, is home to volcanic activity. Ross Island, located in the Ross Sea, is composed of three extinct volcanoes (Mt. Bird, Mt. Terror, and Hut Point) and Mt. Erebus, Antarctica’s most active volcano.
Mt. Erebus is home to a permanent lava lake, or a large amount of molten lava contained in a crater. Only three volcanoes in the world have permanent lava lakes, making Mt. Erebus an important research site for scientists looking to better understand the internal plumbing system of volcanoes. However, its location permits only a six-week field season and its high altitude (3794 meters) is physically challenging.
Mt. Erebus is also notable for its persistent low-level eruptive activity (with almost daily eruptions). While the volcano has had some history of violent activity, most eruptions are passive lava flows similar to the volcanoes of Hawaii.
Seismic activity (earthquakes) is most often associated with tectonic plate boundaries. As plates slowly move, their jagged edges stick and suddenly slip, causing an earthquake.
The Gakkel Ridge underneath the Arctic Ocean experiences small earthquakes that accompany the volcanic activity found in the area. Antarctica, which lies in the center of a tectonic plate, does not experience many earthquakes. However, seismic activity is associated with eruptions of Mt. Erebus.
Use these resources to learn more about erosion, volcanoes, earthquakes, and plate tectonics and how these agents of change affect the polar regions.
All About Glaciers
Learn how glaciers form, move, and shape the landscape.
Basic information about the winds of Antarctica.
National Geographic: Forces of Nature
Explore volcanoes and earthquakes in this web site. Don’t miss the interactive activities that allow you to virtually erupt volcanoes and trigger earthquakes!
Polar Discovery: Arctic Seafloor Expedition
During summer 2007, a team of scientists used autonomous underwater vehicles to explore the Gakkel Ridge. The Polar Discovery web site documents the expedition and provides background information, images, and video.
Mt. Erebus Volcano Observatory
Provides general information about Mt. Erebus, ongoing research, video, and a photo gallery.
National Science Education Standards: Science Content Standards
A study of changes in the Earth’s surface aligns with the Earth and Space Science, and the Science in Personal and Social Perspectives content standards of the National Science Education Standards:
K-4 Earth and Space Science: Changes in the Earth and Sky
- The surface of the earth changes. Some changes are due to slow processes, such as erosion and weathering, and some changes are due to rapid processes, such as landslides, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes.
5-8 Earth and Space Science: Structure of the Earth System
- The solid earth is layered with a lithosphere; hot, convecting mantle; and dense, metallic core.
- Lithospheric plates on the scales of continents and oceans constantly move at rates of centimeters per year in response to movements in the mantle. Major geological events, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and mountain building, result from these plate motions.
- Land forms are the result of a combination of constructive and destructive forces. Constructive forces include crustal deformation, volcanic eruption, and deposition of sediment, while destructive forces include weathering and erosion.
5-8 Earth and Space Science: Earth’s History
- The earth processes we see today, including erosion, movement of lithospheric plates, and changes in atmospheric composition, are similar to those that occurred in the past.
- Fossils provide important evidence of how life and environmental conditions have changed.
K-4 Science in Personal and Social Perspectives: Changes in Environments
- Changes in environments can be natural or influenced by humans. Some changes are good, some are bad, and some are neither good nor bad.
- Some environmental changes occur slowly, and others occur rapidly.
5-8 Science in Personal and Social Perspectives: Natural Hazards
- Internal and external processes of the earth system cause natural hazards, events that change or destroy human and wildlife habitats, damage property, and harm or kill humans.
Copyright December 2008 – The Ohio State University. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0733024. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. This work is licensed under an Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons license | <urn:uuid:c03f67d8-2af1-4fcd-bfd5-56c39b2366af> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://beyondpenguins.ehe.osu.edu/issue/earths-changing-surface/the-forces-that-change-the-face-of-earth | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802768208.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075248-00069-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926159 | 2,593 | 4.1875 | 4 |
Definitions and Distinctions
Free Market: That condition of society in which all economic transactions result from voluntary choice without coercion.
The State: That institution which interferes with the Free Market through the direct exercise of coercion or the granting of privileges (backed by coercion).
Tax: That form of coercion or interference with the Free Market in which the State collects tribute (the Tax), allowing it to hire armed forces to practice coercion in defense of privilege, and also to engage in such wars, adventures, experiments, "reforms", etc., as it pleases, not at its own cost, but at the cost of "its" subjects.
Privilege: From the Latin privi, private, and lege, law. An advantage granted by the State and protected by its powers of coercion. A law for private benefit.
Usury: That form of privilege or interference with the Free Market in which one State-supported group monopolizes the coinage and thereby takes tribute (interest), direct or indirect, on all or most economic transactions.
Landlordism: That form of privilege or interference with the Free Market in which one State-supported group "owns" the land and thereby takes tribute (rent) from those who live, work, or produce on the land.
Tariff: That form of privilege or interference with the Free Market in which commodities produced outside the State are not allowed to compete equally with those produced inside the State.
Capitalism: That organization of society, incorporating elements of tax, usury, landlordism, and tariff, which thus denies the Free Market while pretending to exemplify it.
Conservatism: That school of capitalist philosophy which claims allegiance to the Free Market while actually supporting usury, landlordism, tariff, and sometimes taxation.
Liberalism: That school of capitalist philosophy which attempts to correct the injustices of capitalism by adding new laws to the existing laws. Each time conservatives pass a law creating privilege, liberals pass another law modifying privilege, leading conservatives to pass a more subtle law recreating privilege, etc., until "everything not forbidden is compulsory" and "everything not compulsory is forbidden".
Socialism: The attempted abolition of all privilege by restoring power entirely to the coercive agent behind privilege, the State, thereby converting capitalist oligarchy into Statist monopoly. Whitewashing a wall by painting it black.
Anarchism: That organization of society in which the Free Market operates freely, without taxes, usury, landlordism, tariffs, or other forms of coercion or privilege. RIGHT ANARCHISTS predict that in the Free Market people would voluntarily choose to compete more often than cooperate. LEFT ANARCHISTS predict that in the Free Market people would voluntarily choose to cooperate more often than to compete.
From: The Illuminatus! Trilogy, Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, 1975. | <urn:uuid:461c3638-7be0-493e-8027-d48a9dc14247> | CC-MAIN-2015-11 | https://www.hackcanada.com/cyb0rg/asm/ground_zero.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-11/segments/1424936463411.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20150226074103-00029-ip-10-28-5-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921252 | 581 | 3.046875 | 3 |
It’s really no secret that a lot of young children are fascinated by insects.
There’s just something about those tiny little creatures that they can’t resist.
This, of course, is actually a really good thing as they’re not only diving into the world of science at a young age but they’re also honing their observation skills and truly learning through hands-on exploration!
Now, if they’ve taken this fascination beyond watching those insects outside and want to start learning more about them as they get older, this insect labeling file folder game can help!
From the antennae to the legs, your child will learn the various parts of an ant and then be able to label them using this fun file folder game.
Assembling the Insect Labeling File Folder Game
Putting together this game should take you all of 10 minutes making it not only fun but easy too!
First, you’ll need to gather up a few supplies:
- A manila file folder
- Velcro dots
- Laminator (optional)
- The insect labeling printable (below)
- Clear contact paper
To start, you’ll need to print out the insect labeling printable and cut out the labels. Run these through your laminator for durability.
Next, use some clear contact paper to attach the cover to the front of your folder and the two ant pages to the inside of your folder.
The ant pages may need to be trimmed up just a bit depending on your printer’s margins. Trim to the edge of the ant diagram and line these up to the fold of your folder while making sure that the actual fold stays uncovered. If you cover it with either the printed paper or the contact paper, your folder won’t close correctly.
Finally, add some Velcro dots to the boxes on the ant diagram and the opposite Velcro dots to the backs of your laminated labels.
Using the Insect Labeling File Folder Game
When your game is all put together, give your child the folder and the labels and have them figure out the name of each part of the insect and then label it appropriately.
Use some clear packing tape to attach a plastic baggie to the back of your folder to hold all of your pieces when they’re not in use.
When you’re done with your game, look with your child at different types of insects to see if they can identify the various parts.
If they’re ready to move on and they’re really loving learning about animals and insects, check out our Life Cycle File Folder Games bundle! They’ll have a blast exploring plants, frogs, chickens, and more! | <urn:uuid:202e3abb-6169-4f3a-b786-c06b42722fed> | CC-MAIN-2019-47 | https://fromabcstoacts.com/insect-labeling-file-folder-game/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496667260.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20191113113242-20191113141242-00112.warc.gz | en | 0.909749 | 565 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Juan Carlos (back row, far right) is shown here with the missionary group with which he ministered to the Satere, an aboriginal tribe living in Brazil's Amazon. When he was sixteen, Juan Carlos became the first Otavalan to train missionary leaders within another indigenous tribe.
Many indigenous people in Ecuador migrate from the high country to the country's major cities to look for economic security. They are often discriminated against and excluded by nonindigenous Ecuadorians. As a result, many tribes shun the customs and beliefs of others including Christianity. It's rare they receive biblical teaching from one of their own. Until now. The story of Juan Carols Tocagó an indigenous Otavalan who became a missionary to tribes like his own, is a prime example of how Compassion sponsorship helps spread the Word of God to the farthest reaches of the Earth.
From the time he was 10 years old, Juan Carlos Tocagó knew he was different. Juan Carlos is an indigenous Otavalan from the Otavalo tribe that lives in Ecuador's northern Sierra region.
Most inhabitants of the northern Sierra depend on agriculture to make a living. Because of the difficulty in finding work, many move to Ecuador's cities, leaving their children alone to care for the home. At the age of five, Juan's parents left him in the care of his sister who was barely twice his age.
A Child Converted
But God is aware of the "fatherless." At age six, Juan Carlos heard the Word of God while he was attending a Compassion-assisted project. The tutors and pastors at the project encouraged him to receive Jesus soon after his arrival. From the moment he received Christ, says Juan Carlos, "I knew I was not only special but chosen by God to serve Him!"
Ten years later, at age 16, Juan Carlos found his calling. He entered a missionary training school and was chosen to go on a missions trip to Brazil. Though he was excited, he couldn't afford to go and became discouraged.
Compassion agreed to cover part of his costs and with help from his friends and family, this indigenous Otavalan missionary was commissioned to go to Brazil to share the gospel with an aboriginal tribe.
Commissioned to train new missionary leaders among the Satere tribe, Juan, accompanied by a missionary couple, sailed for 24 hours down the Amazon River to reach the tribe.
Spreading God's Word
The Satere, who live in the depths of Brazil's Amazon jungle, are known to be unfriendly toward strangers but when they realized Juan Carlos was an Indian, they received him warmly. Juan learned their customs and way of life. He ate their food, hunted, collected fruit and served them at every opportunity.
In a short time, the teenager became part of the community and was allowed to share his faith in Christ with the tribe. For many, this was the first time they heard about Jesus Christ.
The Bible seemed more powerful and believable coming from someone who looked like them.
"I was a clear testimony to the tribe that Jesus' 'Great Commission', His gospel, is not only for the rich or Caucasian people," Juan Carlos said. "But it is for everyone who obeys His will and desires to extend the Kingdom of Heaven to the ends of the Earth."
Telling Every Nation
It's been two years now since the mission's trip to Brazil. Today, the 18-year-old works with his church youth group and is a worship leader. He lives with his parents, sells the produce that they cultivate and attends classes regularly.
Juan says his future is in missions outreach to indigenous communities. He believes his calling is a privilege since he knows few people who understand the racism and exclusion tribal people endure.
"I believe God has chosen me to be a testimony to young Indian men and women, to make a difference and impact entire nations. But I first want to evangelize my people, to help them see that they are also special," he adds. "Being different isn't easy but I want to live a holy life so that others will see God in me and change their lives."
What did you like about this story? | <urn:uuid:ef32879d-9a0a-4ccc-8468-cc46ba9f24b4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.compassion.com/featured-stories/god-called-me-to-be-different.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397567.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00105-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985393 | 860 | 2.671875 | 3 |
In today’s web environment you have a great number of options when it comes to technologies to use, images to show, animation to run, navigation to launch, as well as many different frameworks to implement but one area that has always been fairly limited is in different fonts. For the most part you have just a few (relatively speaking) to pick from. You can look at sites like ampsite, MIT, webDesigndev and many others and you will find that you have about 16 fonts or so. This has always bothered me. You want to provide the user with a unique experience which should include fonts that are tailored to your site design. You can create a wide range of graphics text but these are neither scalable nor search engine optimized.
This is where the idea of web fonts come in. What are web fonts? Web fonts are fonts that are open source (can be used without prior permission) and they can be used in most browsers. If you have never used them then let me share with you some ideas to consider.
- Always use a “fall-back” font that is considered safe. (Use from the site above)
- If your site is international then you need to consider the impact of using a web font that is considered an “American” font.
- If you use a web font and Google or your hosting font file goes down then you need to provide a backup font otherwise unexpected results will occur.
- Using a web font will slightly slow down the page on loading (Although this is small).
- At the end of your font styles add a safe font.
- Using a font always the text to be used in web searches (unlike graphic text)
The hardest part is determining which font to use. It can take you a lot of time to find the perfect font to use. Always keep in mind to use a “fall back” safe font.
- Go to Google’s Web Font site.
- Find your web and add to collection
- When you are done click on the ‘Use’
- Google will take you to the page which shows you how to add it to your style sheet.
NOTE: Keep a close eye on the “tachometer” gauge on the right side. You should keep this as low as possible.
Looking for quality web hosting? Look no further than Arvixe Web Hosting! | <urn:uuid:5feeb237-f90d-4e05-82b6-2f48ace4e444> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://blog.arvixe.com/adding-different-fonts-on-a-web-site/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131304412.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172144-00082-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917032 | 501 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Mathematics and Science Institute for Students with Special Needs (The Meadows Center)
The following MSTAR Equivalent Fraction Intervention lessons target struggling Tier 2 students. The intervention lessons provide a concrete structure to help students learn the foundational skills necessary for success in increasingly complex mathematics curricula.
The intervention lessons do not have a recommended time limit, as students may move at varying paces, depending on prior experience with the content. We estimate that each intervention lesson will take at least 30 minutes and that some lessons will need to be divided up over several days.
Each intervention lesson contains several aspects of research-based intervention strategies and lesson design. Additional activities are included for students who need further practice. | <urn:uuid:6c7570d7-3c07-41e1-be5c-218d0e1e5964> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | http://ttaconline.org/Resource/JWHaEa5BS77HsUjC9IJ0Ew/Resource-mathematics-and-science-institute-for-students-with-special-needs-the-meadows-center | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038468066.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20210418043500-20210418073500-00059.warc.gz | en | 0.908503 | 140 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Crater Lake has its first reported earthquake since 2015
Scientists are excited about the ground rumblings at Crater Lake National Park but it's more academic than any threat to the public.
On June 9, at approximately 1800 UTC (11 a.m. Pacific) an M 1.3 earthquake occurred under Crater Lake at a depth approximately 2 km below sea level.
"You're looking at three or four miles down from the surface," Seismologist Wes Thelen said.
The event was followed by around two dozen aftershocks over the next 12 hours. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey's Cascade Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Washington poured over the spectrogram and the readings from the four seismometers in the caldera including one on Wizard Island.
Thelen said the initial earthquake was near the southeast rim of Crater Lake near the Dutton Cliff. He also said that though it doesn't happen often, it doesn't mean that the volcano can't experience earthquakes.
"We don't see a lot of earthquakes here," Thelen said. "This is more or less normal for the volcano to have earthquakes."
The last mention of a series of aftershocks to an earthquake, or a swarm, was May 2015 with four volcano tectonic earthquakes. Most VT earthquakes are not tied to the movement of magma in the volcano but rather a response from a weak fault moving in the area.
Prior to that, in April 2014 there were around 20 VT earthquakes, with four located about the same depth and location. Historically, there were others in 1994 and 1920.
While Crater Lake is an active volcano, it's been 4,800 years since the old Mount Mazama blew up. Thelen said he doesn't think it's going to erupt anytime soon.
Volcano Observatory also noted that although Crater Lake is an active volcano, there is no current danger. | <urn:uuid:fb6adb32-76ec-44b2-a288-60850a0b9970> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | https://ktvl.com/news/local/crater-lake-has-its-first-reporter-earthquake-since-2015 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570987824701.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20191022205851-20191022233351-00481.warc.gz | en | 0.983541 | 389 | 3.3125 | 3 |
(Best months for growing Cucumber in USA - Zone 5a regions)
P = Plant in the garden.
Cucumbers can be started in small peat pots then transplanted when weather is suitable. A trailing plant which will grow tendrils as it gets bigger. Lebanese cucumbers are best picked about 10 -12 cm (4 - 5 in) and eaten whole. Gherkins are usually picked 5 or 6 cm (2 - 3 in) long and pickled. They have a prickly skin. Apple cucumbers are round with a pale, almost white, smooth skin.
Grow in full sun. Grow up a trellis or framework to save space and keep the fruit clean. Needs ties to support it at first. Water regularly and fertilise to encourage growth.
Pick frequently before the fruit become too big.
Use raw in salads, peeled if preferred.
This planting guide is a general reference intended for home gardeners. We recommend that you take into account your local conditions in making planting decisions.
Gardenate is not a farming or commercial advisory service. For specific advice, please contact your local plant suppliers, gardening groups, or agricultural department.
The information on this site is presented in good faith, but we take no responsibility as to the accuracy of the information provided.
We cannot help if you are overrun by giant slugs. | <urn:uuid:8d22f1c8-ab39-464c-b230-494f089c6047> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://www.gardenate.com/plant/Cucumber | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320707.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20170626101322-20170626121322-00353.warc.gz | en | 0.911639 | 281 | 2.90625 | 3 |
At a resent Infragard meeting in New Hampshire, an electrical engineer from Mitre gave a sobering account of current automobiles and their many cyber vulnerabilities. Technology is racing forward in the automotive industry and all the while; hackers are getting smarter and more clever. Below is an article from Automotive iQ that caught Wapack Labs’ attention.
Connectivity has worked its way very quickly into automotive language, and the potential benefits of connected vehicles are widespread. The notion of autonomous cars driving us around while communicating with the infrastructure and other vehicles is no longer a vision, but fast becoming a reality.
Increasingly sophisticated electronics in cars are now also responsible for a variety of safety functions, including a host of driver assistance systems on the road to fully autonomous vehicles. The level of computing power in today’s cars has increased beyond recognition, to the point where a ‘computer on wheels’ is not an entirely inaccurate description. With huge amounts of data being transferred both within the vehicle and to intelligent transport systems, security is of paramount concern.
Cyber security is an incredibly broad subject, and the mainstream definition that most are familiar with is that of protecting personal devices such as PCs and smartphones. The automotive sector has a number of other considerations to take into account, however. Cyber-attacks on Industrial Control Systems have increased significantly in the last decade, particularly in the energy sector, and there are comparisons to be drawn.
Another issue surrounds the vehicle owner and his or her access to data. In traditional mechanical vehicles most owners would assume that the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) has carried out all necessary safety checks, but The Car Hackers Handbook (a free online publication) suggests that owners ought to have the right to access data in their vehicle as a matter of course to be able to confirm that the data is protected. This is an interesting, but controversial point. If access to the ECUs that control critical driving systems is available, it opens up a real danger of ‘hacking’, e.g. changing the way that systems work. In many cases a ‘hack’ is an improvement upon a particular system, but in the case of vehicles it is clearly not ideal for people to tamper with the operation of any driver safety functions.
Protecting such systems and maintaining data protection will be vital for consumer confidence as connected vehicles develop, and any cyber-attacks are sure to draw vast coverage in the media. This is where OEMs must be vigilant. We have seen in various other industries the game of ‘cat and mouse’ between cyber criminals and authorities, and it is a battle that has no end. Those charged with protecting computer systems must be ever aware.
Translating cyber security to an industry where the product is intended to last for ten years and more is a difficult task, and one which will help to shape the HMI systems of the future.
Potential Security Threats
So, what are the real threats to security? There is some disagreement in the industry as to exactly how concerned we should be, but lessons from other, sometimes similar, industries suggest a growing problem. As new services are developed, new cyber threats are born. This has been witnessed in online retail and gaming industries in recent years. Cyber-crime was not considered a huge threat to the building industry, but the development of BIM (Business Information Modelling) systems in the last two years has seen an increased focus on security vulnerabilities. Similarly, existing industrial SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems have also been under attack. These examples are important to the automotive industry for two reasons:
- Those are mature industries where computer systems have not traditionally been designed for internet connectivity, and therefore lack the necessary in-built security.
- Those industries also have long product development cycles - so even if existing cyber threats are taken into account upon design, new threats may have emerged by the time they reach the market, and almost certainly by the time products reach end of life cycle.
Automotive Specific Challenges
Yet further issues arise when considering driver responsibility. The types of data mentioned above are commonly found in various digital storage systems where security is overtly highlighted to the end user, almost all new computers are supplied with anti-virus software for example.
How exactly this is translated to the driver of a connected vehicle, opens up a number of questions. How much responsibility must a driver take for the protection of their vehicle? If software is increasingly used to control safety systems and driver assistance functions, at what point can software failure be attributed as the cause of an accident? And how can it be determined if indeed the cause was a software failure or the result of a cyber-attack?
Legislation and Industry Collaboration
Clearly there are a number of questions for the industry to grapple with, and both legislators and OEMs are beginning to tackle the big issues.
New data protection rules were passed by the EU in 2016, a decision that was welcomed by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA). Secretary General of the ACEA, Erik Jonnaert, said “This regulation arguably gives us the most modern data protection regime in the world; one that was conceived explicitly to deal with issues arising with regard to connected products and services.”
The ACEA, which is comprised of 15 Europe-based manufacturers, also published its own industry strategy paper on connectivity, and a statement setting out five principles of data protection to which the industry in Europe will adhere:
- We are transparent;
- We give customers choice;
- We always take data protection into account;
- We maintain data security;
- We process personal data in a proportionate manner.
Protecting Data and Maintaining Security
In its industry strategy paper, the ACEA gave a clear indication of where European manufacturers stand in terms of connectivity and security. The paper states that security and safety are the top priority in protection of the vehicle’s control units from hacking, manipulation and malware.
The ACEA also acknowledged the need to evolve continuously to respond to emerging risks, and cites the newly-formed automotive Information Sharing and Analysis Centre (ISAC), which has been established to enable manufacturers, suppliers, telecommunication companies and ICT firms to share information about the latest security threats and countermeasures. The ACEA also warned that:
- Vehicle manufacturers are fundamentally willing to share selected vehicle data with third parties, provided this occurs in a way that meets strict requirements for road and product safety, as well as data security, and does not undermine their liability.
This may be a sign that the automotive industry is drawing the curtains to a degree on large ICT companies such as Apple and Google, which have infiltrated the HMI sector in recent years. The report goes on to suggest that the free flow of information not only presents security risks, but also has the potential to damage the commercial competitiveness of manufacturers.
The paper goes on to suggest that the ‘extended vehicle’ is the best technical solution, a standardized solution which is safe and secure. The extended vehicle is defined as a physical road vehicle with external software and hardware extensions for some of its features. These extensions are developed, implemented and managed by the vehicle manufacturer. The OEM is also responsible for all communication among the various parts of the extended vehicle, especially between internal and external software and hardware components.
Thus, the extended vehicle offers open yet protected access interfaces for the provision of services by manufacturer or third parties. The recommended access methods include the on-board diagnostics interface, a standardized web interface for remote diagnostic support or fleet management, and an interface for safety-related applications in the field of cooperative intelligent transport systems.
While the automotive industry is open to the benefits of connected vehicles, the HMI interface in particular can present security risks if data is accessible for third parties in the interest of providing services to the driver. The ACEA has used this point to reinforce the OEMs desire to stay in control of their own systems and the way in which data can be accessed.
This, of course, is just one issue amongst a number of challenges relating to security. Once connected to the internet, any device or system becomes immediately vulnerable to attack, and organizations such as the automotive ICAS will become increasingly relevant in the coming years, as the cyber-war enters a new battleground of transportation.
Wapack Labs is located in New Boston, NH. We are a Cyber Threat Analysis and Intelligence Service organization. For questions, comments or assistance, please contact the lab directly at 1-844-492-7225, or firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:5350ae3e-79dc-40a6-b445-e1e6566da230> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://redskyalliance.org/automotive/smart-cars | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875146681.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20200227094720-20200227124720-00011.warc.gz | en | 0.95199 | 1,760 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Is Bad Breath Cramping Your Style?
Have you ever been at work interacting with a coworker when all of it sudden it seems like they are backing away from you because of the smell coming out of your mouth? Are you constantly popping breath mints into your mouth before a big date with your significant other only to find out that 30 minutes later, the bad odor is back? Don’t worry, you are not alone. Bad breath (halitosis) is a common problem for many people. The good news is, that we can help you fight the battle with bad breath and defeat it for good.
The Cause of Bad Breath
Bad breath is common because your mouth is home to hundreds of different species of bacteria that can produce nasty-smelling compounds. 90% of the time, bad breath is caused by bacteria emitting hydrogen sulfur. Some people harbor more bacteria species that cause bad breath than others.
The halitosis causing species mostly hang out on the tongue, and multiply at night, when the salivary glands slow down (hence morning breath). Some bad breath is to be expected, like the temporary sacrifice for a gourmet meal that contains garlic. Longer-lasting unwelcome triggers include tooth decay, gum disease, insufficient saliva (dry mouth or xerostomia), poor oral hygiene, badly fitting restorations such as bridges and dentures, and old fillings that can trap bacteria.
Saliva is important because it rinses away the bacteria that causes bad breath. There are many medications that can play a role in causing dry mouth, which can lead to bad breath. There are also various diseases that can cause halitosis. Here are some to be aware of: respiratory tract infections such as pneumonia or bronchitis, chronic sinus infections, postnasal drip, diabetes, chronic acid reflux, and liver or kidney problems. Smoking is also a major cause of bad breath.
At Home Proper Oral Hygiene Habits To Treat Bad Breath
There are many ways to help minimize bad breath. Here are some suggestions:
- Brush Your Teeth – Brush two times a day for two minutes with a fluoride containing toothpaste. To maintain fresh breath throughout the day, it is recommended to brush your teeth after you eat (Try to keep a toothbrush at work or school to brush after lunch).
- Floss Your Teeth – Floss at least one time a day. Flossing is extremely important because there are odor causing food particles and plaque that get stuck in between your teeth and cannot be removed with a toothbrush.
- Brush Your Tongue – Since the main cause of bad breath is due to the bacteria on your tongue, it is recommended to gently brush your tongue with your toothbrush and toothpaste. After brushing, use a tongue scraper, which can be purchased at a local convenience store to gently scrape your tongue from back to front. After scraping, use a tongue spray.
- Use a Non-Alcohol Containing Mouthrinse – Some mouthrinses contain alcohol, which can dry your mouth. In these situations it may temporarily mask the odor but it actually in the long run can make bad breath worse. It is recommended to use a mouthrinse at least 2 times a day. Make sure to gargle when using mouthrinse as a big source of bad breath can start in your throat.
- Drink Lots of Water – This will keep your mouth moist. Sugarless chewing gum or sucking on sugarless candy also stimulates the production of saliva, which helps wash away food particles and bacteria.
- Monitor Your Diet – Foods high in protein or dairy products generate large amounts of amino acids, which can help lead to odor causing bacteria. A diet low in carbs burns stored fat, creating toxic-smelling ketones. Heavy alcohol consumption can cause bad breath as well.
Treatment For Bad Breath Offered At Caring Smiles Family Dentistry
At Caring Smiles Family Dentistry, we offer various products to help combat bad breath, in addition to maintaining proper oral hygiene habits at home.
1. ORAL-B Pro 5000 with Bluetooth Connectivity Electric Rechargeable Toothbrush – The Oral-B PRO 5000 SmartSeries with Bluetooth Connectivity electric rechargeable toothbrush. This toothbrush not only removes more plaque than a traditional toothbrush but also eliminates bacteria that causes bad breath. There are 5 rechargeable modes: Daily Clean, Gum Care, Sensitive, Whitening, and Deep Clean. By downloading the Oral B App on your smartphone, you can get real-time feedback on your brushing habits.
3. BreathRx Tongue Scraper and Spray – BreathRx is a product that knocks out bad breath by going straight to its source. It uses a special blend of anti-bacterial and odor-neutralizing ingredients. The system is designed to treat both the symptoms of bad breath and its causes in three effective steps: brush, spray and scrape. We recommend starting out with the Breath Rx Tongue Scraper and Spray:
- 1 BreathRx Gentle Tongue Scraper (2 pack)
- 1 8ml anti-bacterial breath sprays
Please give us a call at 248.973.8788 for more information in regards to purchasing the products listed above.
If bad breath persists after trying the tips mentioned in this blog post, please give us a call and set up an appointment. Through a thorough dental examination of your oral health, we will be able to suggest the proper course of action to help you eliminate your bad breath for good. If you believe that the foods that you are eating are causing your bad breath, keep a log of your meals and record what you eat. Bring your food log along with a current list of medications to your next dental appointment. This will help guide us in pinpointing your problem. Don’t let bad breath get in the way of you feeling confident when interacting with others!
At Caring Smiles Family Dentistry, we love sharing great dental health tips, contests, and special announcements on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Please call our office at 248.973.8788 to make an appointment and join us on our journey of changing lives one smile at a time. | <urn:uuid:a13c9be8-217e-48ce-997d-ed12fab7a75a> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://caringsmilesfd.com/badbreath/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323588284.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20211028100619-20211028130619-00527.warc.gz | en | 0.92561 | 1,274 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Alternative views on children's vaccinations and long term health risks.
Mainstream media feeds on fear and disaster. Mainstream medicine makes a lot of money in childhood vaccinations. Children today receive more vaccinations before they are four years old than ever before. Concern about injecting drugs, pathogens and heavy metals into an infant's developing immune system reasonably creates cause for concern. If the immune system does not develop normally, how can it fend off disease and infections later in life.
Over 20 years ago, Neil Z Miller, a medical journalist from NM, http://www.icimed.com/Conference_CVs/Buffalo/Neil_Z_Miller_CV_Bio.pdf, began investigating childhood vaccines. What most parents do not know caused serious concern.
Think Twice, http://www.thinktwice.com/allvacs.htm, provides educational resources on vaccines, and frequently asked questions. Look at the sites for information that will expand your understanding of what is involved in making decisions regarding vaccinations.
More research demonstrates on the increased difficulties for immune system adequate response after vaccinations. http://www.healthy.net/Health/Article/Do_Vaccines_Disable_the_Immune_System/539
Perhaps the question is not whether non-vaccinated children pose a threat to their community, but are vaccinated children at higher risk for increased chronic debilitating conditions?
If you have questions about whether to vaccinate your child or not, review the article below by Mothering Magazine, a New Mexican publication, make an appointment with Daniel Cobb, D.o.m. in Santa Fe NM, or contact the Albuquerque Natural Health Center in Albuquerque NM.
Finally, remember you can choose vaccines that you feel you want and perhaps not others. You may opt for fewer vaccinations at one time, and delay others. However before you choose any vaccination, educate yourself on ingredients and composition, possible contraindications and overall health consequences for your child. | <urn:uuid:7b8758bd-39f7-4a2d-acec-d1610e70b73a> | CC-MAIN-2016-18 | http://www.examiner.com/article/do-vaccinated-children-have-higher-risk-for-diseases | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-18/segments/1461860113541.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20160428161513-00049-ip-10-239-7-51.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925651 | 400 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Author: Fiona Harvey | Published: June 28, 2017
Avoiding dangerous levels of climate change is still just about possible, but will require unprecedented effort and coordination from governments, businesses, citizens and scientists in the next three years, a group of prominent experts has warned.
Warnings over global warming have picked up pace in recent months, even as the political environment has grown chilly with Donald Trump’s formal announcement of the US’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement. This year’s weather has beaten high temperature records in some regions, and 2014, 2015 and 2016 were the hottest years on record.
But while temperatures have risen, global carbon dioxide emissions have stayed broadly flat for the past three years. This gives hope that the worst effects of climate change – devastating droughts, floods, heatwaves and irreversible sea level rises – may be avoided, according to a letter published in the journal Nature this week.
The authors, including former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and Hans Joachim Schellnhuber of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, argue that the next three years will be crucial. They calculate that if emissions can be brought permanently lower by 2020 then the temperature thresholds leading to runaway irreversible climate change will not be breached.
Figueres, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, under whom the Paris agreement was signed, said: “We stand at the doorway of being able to bend the emissions curve downwards by 2020, as science demands, in protection of the UN sustainable development goals, and in particular the eradication of extreme poverty. This monumental challenge coincides with an unprecedented openness to self-challenge on the part of sub-national governments inside the US, governments at all levels outside the US, and of the private sector in general. The opportunity given to us over the next three years is unique in history.”
Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, added: “The maths is brutally clear: while the world can’t be healed within the next few years, it may be fatally wounded by negligence [before] 2020.” | <urn:uuid:66bb8928-da4a-418b-9598-9dfbadbcd8a1> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | http://regenerationinternational.org/2017/06/29/world-three-years-left-stop-dangerous-climate-change-warn-experts/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934806708.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20171122233044-20171123013044-00772.warc.gz | en | 0.935294 | 443 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Patients with schizophrenia were more likely to die younger (by 8 years) and have a shorter duration between time of diagnosis and time of death.
Patients with schizophrenia often have worse outcomes than their peers without the diagnosis. How you can support your patient in ensuring a better cancer prognosis?
SPECIAL REPORT: PSYCHO-ONCOLOGY PART I
There was a consensus in the old psychiatric literature that cancer was rare in patients with psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia, as noted in an 1891 article1 published in what is now the British Journal of Psychiatry. Since many researchers at the end of 19th century believed that cancer was a disease brought on by civilization (largely caused by the resultant stress), this observation surprised early researchers, who thought cancer would be more rather than less prevalent in the context of mental illness and its related stresses.
The association of cancer and schizophrenia changed over time. Early studies were based on the ratio of cancer deaths to total deaths in a given population. These studies concluded that patients with psychosis showed a significantly decreased incidence of cancer. Later investigators decided that this conclusion was unwarranted because mortality from other causes (tuberculosis being the main culprit at the time) was higher in patients with psychiatric disorders than in the population at large. Thus, cancer mortality being comparatively low was merely an illusion.2 Later still, researchers realized that important factors such as age, sex, type of cancer, and medication use should be considered before meaningful results could emerge.
For the most part, current thinking is that mortality from cancer is higher in schizophrenia than in the general population, but the actual incidence of most cancers is approximately the same.3 This, however, does not apply to all cancers. For example, data have shown that patients with schizophrenia have a higher rate of breast cancer and a lower rate of melanoma and prostate cancer than controls. High incidence of breast cancer may be due to such factors as low rates of parity and breast feeding in women with schizophrenia, high incidence of smoking, hyperprolactinemia, and adiposity secondary to antipsychotic medication.4
There is also speculation that genetic links may exist between the 2 diseases.5,6 Similarly, the low incidence of melanoma may be explained by the main environmental risk for this cancer (ie, sun exposure). Individuals with schizophrenia live their lives relatively unexposed to sun, as shown by the very low vitamin D levels in this population.7,8 The low rate of prostate cancer is attributed to yet other reasons—reduced sexual activity and hyperprolactinemia induced by antipsychotic drugs.9 Inexplicably, the rates of lung cancer in schizophrenia are not raised despite the fact that patients with psychiatric disorders are very often heavy smokers.10
Altogether, cancer rates in schizophrenia appear to be lower than might be expected given the serious risk factors (ie, smoking and adiposity) found in this population. Two explanations have been advanced—tumor suppressor genes among genes involved in schizophrenia and tumor suppressant effects of antipsychotic medication.11,12 It is always possible, however, that reduced cancer rates in patients with schizophrenia may simply reflect low rates of screening and underdiagnosis as well as premature death (ie, due to tuberculosis and now cardiovascular disease).13
Cancer mortality rates in schizophrenia do not reflect a reduced incidence. They are high, especially for stomach cancer, lung cancer, and breast cancer (Figure).14,15 For example, Bradford and colleagues16 examined the records of almost 35,000 veterans with lung cancer and found that those with a diagnosis of schizophrenia showed significantly poorer survival than their peers.
With respect to breast cancer, a Finnish study that controlled for age, year of cancer diagnosis, and comorbidity found significantly elevated breast cancer mortality in patients with severe mental illness.17 The researchers thought the elevation might be partly explained by cancer stage at presentation.
The discrepancy between roughly equal incidence and higher mortality is probably attributable to a variety of factors including patient, doctor, and system factors (Table).18-20 For example, it has been observed that fewer patients with severe mental illness receive chemotherapy or radiation post-mastectomy compared with the general population of patients with breast cancer.17
A 2020 systematic review of all cancer screening (breast, cervix, colon, lung, stomach, ovary, and prostate) publications included information on close to 5 million individuals with and without mental illness.21 The majority were women, and the median quality of all the studies was judged as high. The findings indicated that cancer screening is significantly less frequent in people with mental illness than it is in the general population. According to Howard and colleagues,22 the relative failure of patients with severe mental illness to seek cancer screening were due transportation issues, lack of reminders, and not being familiar with the process. As a result of decreased screening, cancers come to medical attention at relatively later stages and are, therefore, less amenable to treatment. In turn, these cancers are more likely to lead to treatment non-response and early death.
If the stage of presentation were not a confounding factor, would there still be a disparity in cancer care between those with psychotic illness and those without?23 Other considerations play a part, such as enrollment in trials of cancer drugs. Protocols often exclude individuals with schizophrenia on the assumption that they may not be competent to consent or will be unable to adhere to the protocol.24,25 Tests of competency can, of course, be administered prior to consent, so decisional capacity should not be a major drawback.22
Similarly, it is possible that physicians minimize the clinical significance of the complaints from patients with psychotic disorders, attributing such complaints to psychotic phenomena (eg, diagnostic overshadowing).26 This may be due to patients’ communication difficulties and poor recall, but also to mental illness stigma, which is prevalent even among physicians. It has also been reported that patients with schizophrenia have a high pain threshold, so they may not complain until late stages of disease.18 Moreover, patients may have little family encouragement to visit their doctor when symptoms manifest. Patients with psychotic illness may be difficult to treat, not only because of relatively poor adherence to treatment regimens, but also because of extensive comorbidities, namely the high prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Finally, there may be problems associated with interactions among the various drugs required for the various disorders.22
Outright treatment refusal may also occur, which would necessitate tests of decisional capacity and, if necessary, surrogate consent. The onus is on the psychiatric staff to liaise with non-psychiatric medical practitioners and advocate for their patients.
Disparities have been found even with end-of-life care between patients with schizophrenia and the general population.27 Such a comparison was made between 2500 patients with schizophrenia and 200,000 controls, all of whom had died in hospital as a result of cancer. The researchers also undertook a sub-analysis between the patients with schizophrenia and 10,000 controls matched 1 to 4 in terms of age, sex, and site of the primary cancer. They found that patients with schizophrenia were more likely to die younger (by 8 years) and have a shorter duration between time of diagnosis and time of death. Patients with schizophrenia were more likely than controls to receive palliative care in the last month of life but less likely to receive chemotherapy, surgery, imaging investigations, endoscopies, or blood transfusions.
A potential reason for the disparity is the increased comorbidities associated with patients who have schizophrenia. There was a large number of lung cancer deaths among the participants in this study, so another potential reason for the discrepancies was the high rate of smoking in schizophrenia populations. Interestingly, the patients with schizophrenia were less likely to have recorded metastases at the time of death than their matched controls, suggesting to the researchers that they had undergone fewer diagnostic explorations or had died of their primary cancer prior to the development of metastases, perhaps because of a delay in treatment initiation. Such a delay may be due to the fact that patients with schizophrenia were less likely than controls to have had family doctors.
Patients with schizophrenia were more likely to die younger (by 8 years) and have a shorter duration between time of diagnosis and time of death.
The results were interpreted cautiously, but the researchers stressed that evident disparities in cancer care exist. They concluded that providing clinical care to an individual with comorbid schizophrenia and cancer requires expertise in both oncology and psychiatry and necessitates training that does not exist at present. It also requires improved coordination of care among the different branches of medicine.27
The issue of antipsychotics and their contribution to the cancer-schizophrenia connection is complicated. On one side are the arguments that antipsychotics predispose to cancer or make treatment less effective than it would be otherwise. On the other side are arguments that antipsychotics have anti-tumor properties.
Similarly, there have been back-and-forth discussions on antipsychotics contributing to mortality in schizophrenia via induced obesity, metabolic problems, and prolactin elevation. Most of this literature deals with the association between schizophrenia and premature death due to cardiovascular causes.13,28
Interesting, a meta-analysis of 20 studies on the relationship between long-term mortality and exposure to antipsychotic medication in patients with schizophrenia showed that patients not taking antipsychotics had a higher mortality than those who did.29 This does not, however, exonerate antipsychotics. Patients not taking antipsychotics may receive inferior medical care, and they may have higher rates of suicide and fatal accidents. This study does not specifically address cancer mortality and the use of antipsychotics.
The controversy about cancer mortality and schizophrenia rages most fiercely around the topic of breast cancer. A critical review by De Hert and colleagues30 found that while a large body of evidence supports the involvement of prolactin in breast carcinogenesis, results of human studies remain equivocal as to the role of antipsychotics-induced hyperprolactinemia either in increasing the risk of cancer or in contributing to high mortality. The researchers concluded that a high incidence of nulliparity, and the prevalence in the schizophrenia population of obesity, diabetes mellitus, and unhealthy behaviors (eg, alcohol dependence, smoking, low physical activity), is of greater relevance to breast cancer mortality than antipsychotics.
At the same time, there is emerging evidence that at least some antipsychotics protect against cancer. Sertindole was found to be effective against breast cancer cell lines, with the suggestion that it might be able to stop breast to brain metastases.31 Other studies have found antipsychotics to be effective treatments for glioblastomas and a wide variety of other malignancies.12,32,33 These studies are thought-provoking, but they need replication.
For the clinician, this brief review recommends close health monitoring of patients with psychotic illness to prevent or treat weight gain and prolactin elevation. Should patients with schizophrenia develop cancer, there are no good reasons to take them off an effective antipsychotic drug regimen. However, drug interactions with chemotherapeutic agents may need to be checked.
More broadly, physicians need to treat patient complaints at face value even when they are communicated in a disorganized way. Decisional competence and ability to follow through on complicated therapeutic protocols should not be based on diagnosis alone; competency screening is important in such cases. To truly address the problem, all patients with schizophrenia should be linked to a primary care physician, psychiatrists and oncologists should develop a common language, and psychiatry should be more firmly integrated with the rest of medicine.
Dr Seeman is Professor Emerita, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She reports no conflicts of interest concerning the subject matter of this article.
1. Snow H. Cancer in its relations to insanity. J Ment Sci. 1891;37:548-553.
2. Ananth J, Burnstein M. Cancer: less common in psychiatric patients? Psychosom. 1977;18:44-46.
3. Catalá-López F, Suárez-Pinilla M, Suárez-Pinilla P, et al. Inverse and direct cancer comorbidity in people with central nervous system disorders: A meta-analysis of cancer incidence in 577,013 participants of 50 observational studies. Psychother Psychosom. 2014;83:89-105.
4. Kyrgiou M, Kalliala I, Markozannes G, et al. Adiposity and cancer at major anatomical sites: umbrella review of the literature. BMJ. 2017;356:j477.
5. Byrne EM, Ferreira MAR, Xue A, et al. Is Schizophrenia a risk factor for breast cancer? — evidence from genetic data. Schizophr Bull. 2019;45:1251–1256.
6. Kim S, Kim K, Myung W, et al. Two-sample Mendelian randomization study for schizophrenia and breast cancer. Precision Future Med. 2020;4:21-30.
7. Gandini S, Sera F Cattaruzza MS, et al. Meta-analysis of risk factors for cutaneous melanoma: II. Sun exposure. Eur J Cancer. 2005;41:45-60.
8. Valipour G, Saneei P, Esmaillzadeh A. Serum vitamin D levels in realtion to schizophrenia: a systematic review and meta-analyss of observational studies. J Clin Endocrinol Metabol. 2014;99:3863-3872.
9. Raviv G, Laufer M, Baruch Y, et al. Risk of prostate cancer in patients with schizophrenia. Compr Psychiatry. 2014;55:1639-1642.
10. Zhuo C, Zhuang H, Gao X, et al. Lung cancer incidence in patients with schizophrenia: meta-analysis. Br J Psychiatry. 2019;215:704–711.
11. Zhuo C, Wang D, Zhou C, et al. Double-edged sword of tumour suppressor genes in schizophrenia. Front Mol Neurosci. 2019;12:1.
12. Huang J, Zhao D, Liu Z, et al. Repurposing psychiatric drugs as anti-cancer agents. Cancer Letters. 2018;419:257-265.
13. Seeman MV. Schizophrenia mortality: barriers to progress. Psychiatr Q. 2019;90:553-563.
14. Ajdacic-Gross V, Tschopp A, Bopp M, et al. Cancer comortality patterns in schizophrenia and psychotic disorders: a new methodological approach for unique databases. Int J Meth Psychiatr Res. 2014;23:9-24.
15. Ni L, Wu J, Long Y, et al. Mortality of site-specific cancer in patients with schizophrenia: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Psychiatry. 2019;19:323.
16. Bradford DW, Goulet J, Hunt M, et al. A cohort study of mortality in individuals with and without schizophrenia after diagnosis of lung cancer. J Clin Psychiatry. 2016;77:e1626-e1630.
17. Ahlgrén-Rimpiläinen AJ, Arffman M, Suvisaari J, et al. Excess mortality from breast cancer in female breast cancer patients with severe mental illness. Psychiatry Res. 2020;286:112801.
18. Zhou L, Bi Y, Liang M, et al. A modality-specific dysfunction of pain processing in schizophrenia. Hum Brain Map. 2020;41:1738-1753.
19. Seeman MV. Schizophrenia and cancer: low incidence, high mortality. Res J Oncology. 2017;1:6.
20. Shinden Y, Kijima Y, Hirata M, et al. Clinical characteristics of breast cancer patients with mental disorders. Breast. 2017;36:39-43.
21. Solmi M, Firth J, Miola A, et al. Disparities in cancer screening in people with mental illness across the world versus the general population: prevalence and comparative meta-analysis including 4 717 839 people. Lancet Psychiatry. 2020;7:52–63.
22. Howard LM, Barley EA, Davies E, et al. Cancer diagnosis in people with severe mental illness: practical and ethical issues. Lancet Oncol. 2010;11:797–804.
23. Irwin KE, Henderson DC, Knight HP, et al. Cancer care for individuals with schizophrenia. Cancer. 2014;120:323-334.
24. Humphreys K, Blodgett JC, Weiss Roberts L. The exclusion of people with psychiatric disorders from medical research. J Psychiatr Res. 2015;70:28-32.
25. Irwin KE, Moy B, Fields LE, et al. Expanding access to cancer clinical trials for patients with mental illness. J Clin Oncol. 2019;37:1524–1528.
26. Jones S, Howard L, Thornicroft G. ‘Diagnostic overshadowing’: worse physical health care for people with mental illness. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2008;118:169–71.
27. Fond G, Salas S, Pauly V, et al. End-of-life care among patients with schizophrenia and cancer: a population-based cohort study from the French national hospital database. Lancet Public Health. 2019;4:e583-e591.
28. Vermeulen J, van Rooijen G, Doedens P, et al. Antipsychotic medication and long-term mortality risk in patients with schizophrenia; a systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychol Med. 2017;47:2217-2228.
29. de Mooij LD, Kikkert M, Theunissen J, et al. Dying too soon: Excess mortality in severe mental illness. Front Psychiatry. 2019;10:855.
30. De Hert M, Peuskens J, Sabbe T, et al. Relationship between prolactin, breast cancer risk, and antipsychotics in patients with schizophrenia: a critical review. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2016:133: 5-22.
31. Zhang W, Zhang C, Liu F, et al. Antiproliferative activities of the second-generation antipsychotic drug sertindole against breast cancers with a potential application for treatment of breast-to-brain metastases. Sci Rep. 2018;8:15753.
32. Lee JK, Nam DH, Lee J. Repurposing antipsychotics as glioblastoma therapeutics: Potentials and challenges. Oncol Lett. 2016;11:1281-1286.
33. Zhuo C, Xun Z, Hou W, et al. Surprising anticancer activities of psychiatric medications: Old drugs offer new hope for patients with brain cancer. Front Pharmacol. 2019;10:1262.
34. National Cancer Institute. Cancer Disparaties. 2011-2015. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/disparities. Accessed June 11, 2020.
35. Ji J, Chen X. Incidence of cancer in patients with schizophrenia and their first-degree relatives: a population-based study in Sweden. Schizophr Bull. 2013;39:527-536. | <urn:uuid:5fe26288-7749-4e1c-a4cf-67e0bee2e8b3> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/special-issues-in-schizophrenia-and-cancer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610704799741.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20210126104721-20210126134721-00615.warc.gz | en | 0.92347 | 4,038 | 2.96875 | 3 |
THE PRECAMBRIAN ERA
The Precambrian Era. The name means: "before the Cambrian period." This old, but
still common term was originally used to refer to the whole period of earth's history
before the formation of the oldest rocks with recognizable fossils in them. In the last
few decades, however, geologists have found that there are some hard-to-discern fossils in
some Precambrian rocks, so this period is now also known as the Cryptozoic or
"obscure life" Eon (from the words "crypt" = "hidden," and
"zoon" = "life").
The Precambrian covers almost 90% of the entire history of the Earth.
It has been divided into three eras: the Hadean, the Archean and the Proterozoic.
The Precambrian Era comprises all of geologic time prior to 600 million
years ago. The Precambrian was originally defined as the era that predated the
emergence of life in the Cambrian Period. It is now known, however, that life on Earth
began by the early Archean and that fossilized organisms became more and more abundant
throughout Precambrian time.
The two major subdivisions of the last part of the Precambrian are the
Archean (oldest) and the Proterozoic. Rocks younger than 600 Ma are considered part
of the Phanerozoic.
Below is another type of breakdown of Precambrian time.
Hadean ("Hades-like") Era. This era began with the formation of the earth from
dust and gas orbiting the Sun about 4.6 billion years ago. During this era the surface of
the Earth was like popular visions about Hades: oceans of liquid rock, boiling sulfur, and
impact craters everywhere! Volcanoes blast off all over the place, and the rain of rocks
and asteroids from space never ends. It's hard to take a step without falling in a pool of
lava or getting hit by a meteor! The air is hot, thick, steamy, and full of dust and crud.
But you can't breathe it anyway: it's made of nothing but carbon dioxide and water vapor,
with traces of nitrogen and smelly sulfur compounds! Any rocks that do form from cooling
lavas are quickly buried under new lava flows or blasted to bits by yet another impact.
Some people think that an asteroid as large as the planet Mars hit the Earth near the
beginning of the Hadean era, completely smashing and melting the Earth and forming the
Moon as part of the "splash!" Wow! No one has found any rocks on
earth from this era. Only meteorites from space and moon rocks are this old. If any
life formed on earth during this era, it was probably destroyed.
Archean ("Ancient" or "Primitive") Era. This era begins about a
billion years after the formation of the earth, and things have changed a lot! Mostly
everything has cooled down. Most of the water vapor that was in the air has cooled and
condensed to form a global ocean. Even most of the carbon dioxide is gone, having been
chemically changed into limestone and deposited at the bottom of the ocean. The air is now
mostly nitrogen, and the sky is filled with normal clouds and rain. The lava is also
mostly cooled to form the ocean floor. The interior of the earth is still quite hot and
active, as shown by the many erupting volcanoes. The volcanoes form lots of small islands
in long chains. The islands are the only land surface. The continents have not formed yet.
The islands are carried over the surface of the earth by the movement of rock deep in the
earth's interior. (This movement results from the loss of heat from the deep interior and
is called plate tectonics.) Occasionally the small islands collide with each
other to form larger islands. Eventually these larger islands will collide to form the
cores of the continents we know today. Thank goodness those pesky asteroids and
meteorites are now mostly gone, so impact craters form only occasionally. What about life?
If you look closely, you will see evidence of blue-green algae (actually simple bacteria)
floating in the ocean. That's all there is! Just single-celled bacteria in the ocean.
There is as yet no life on land. Life began in the ocean near the beginning of this era.
The oldest known fossils - the remains of different types of bacteria - are in archean
rocks about 3.5 billion years old.
The maps below show the probable locations of Archean (early Precambrian) rocks, which in
many cases formed the early continental cratons. Cratons are large areas of continental
lithosphere (or crust) that have remained coherent and relatively rigid since the
Precambrian. Laurentia, the North American craton, is one of the oldest and largest. It
includes the Precambrian shields of Canada and Greenland, the covered platform and basins
of the North American interior. Laurentia owes its existence to a network of Early
Proterozoic orogenic belts. Many of the belts are collision zones preserving only the
deformed margins of formerly independent microcontinents composed of Archean crust. Other
belts contain accreted Early Proterozoic island arcs and associated intraoceanic deposits.
Thus, we now know that cratons were the early "cores" of the
continents; sedimentary rocks accreted onto the edges of these cratons later in geologic
time, and then were folded and bent up into mountains as one craton collided with another,
or were down-dropped when the cratons split (rifted) apart. Note that the craton for North
America, now called the Canadian Shield or the Laurentian Shield, is located just to the
north of Michigan, and includes parts of the western UP.
The early, Precambrian continents were unlike those we know today: they were smaller and
had surfaces of igneous rocks. No life lived upon them. Continued squeeze of the cooling,
shrinking crust caused the pent up forces beneath to revolt many times and push the land
masses higher, or crack their edges and there pour forth molten rock in quiet or explosive
volcanic activity. High mountain ranges and plateaus were built or pushed up above the
level of the ocean until finally the continents settled to the forms of continental blocks
our geographies show today.
However, the Precambrian oceans did not settle in the basins we know,
but covered much of the continents with shallow seas in which the story of a billion years
of earth history was to be recorded. The continental shelves are, even today, covered by
shallow seas and there the geologic history of today is being recorded. What are these
records made in the shallow seas--- these tablets of time on which the story of ages is
told? When the first igneous rock cracked, when the first drop of water moved, the record
began. When the atmosphere cooled and frost arrived the recording became more rapid. When
plant and animal life became abundant the record became complicated. Changes of
temperature caused the granitic rocks to flake off at the surface, gravity and moving
waters carried the loosened rocks down the slopes, rolled them together, broke them into
smaller and smaller particles, carried them to the sea where they became sediments that
muddied the seawater. Some of the sediments were dissolved in the water, and as the
process kept on through the ages the seas became salty. The sediments, sorted by waves and
currents of the first oceans, settled to the bottom of the seas and were spread out on the
sea floor. In the course of a long time, as layer upon layer of sediments were piled one
on another, they were compressed, cemented, and consolidated into rock which we call
sedimentary. Each layer or bed is a stratum; layered or bedded rock is said to be
Various minerals in the ancient igneous rocks were made over into
different sediments. The hard minerals like quartz collected together as sand, and being
heavy, were not carried so far out to sea. They built up coarse and fine rocks which we
call sandstones. Other minerals were broken up into fine clay and silt muds that were
carried far from shore but eventually settled on the sea floor and compacted to a rock we
call shale. Some of the minerals disintegrated to form lime, or calcium carbonate. As the
igneous rocks were eroded some minerals dissolved and were carried to the sea in solution;
there certain chemical reactions caused the lime to be precipitated and in places to build
up great thicknesses of lime mud that eventually solidified into a rock known as
limestone. Other chemical reactions caused iron minerals to be formed which in turn
settled to the bottom of shallow seas, and later in the geological history gypsum and salt
crystallized out of the sea water to form great beds of gypsum and rock salt.
Proterozoic ("Early Life") Era. Well, here we are about 700 million years ago,
near the end of the longest time period in geologic history. It began about two billion
years after the formation of the earth and lasted about another two billion years! So what
has happened in all that time? Hmmmmm. There is a lot more land to be seen. In fact,
there are two supercontinents, one visible across the equator on this side of the earth
and another one on the other side. These huge masses of land formed by collisions of the
many, many islands made by volcanoes during the Archean and most of the Proterozoic eras.
The earth's interior has cooled some more, and there are fewer volcanoes than in the
Archean. Even though the movements of the earth's surface we call Plate Tectonics are
still very fast and continental collisions are frequent (every few hundred million years
or so!), the centers or cores of the continents are now quite large and stable. In fact,
geologists date the beginning of the Proterozoic Era by the age of the oldest continental
rocks that have not been reheated or chemically altered. Life has not changed much during
the last two billion years, but the few changes are significant. Life is still found only
in the ocean, but somewhere around 1.7 billion years ago, single-celled creatures appeared
that had a real nucleus. Another important change is about to happen: true multi-celled
life is about to appear, some 30 million years before the end of the Proterozoic. These
multi-celled creatures will have no hard parts like shells or teeth in their bodies, so
their fossils will be hard to find. The atmosphere is about the same, mostly nitrogen,
with a little water vapor and carbon dioxide. But what's this? Free oxygen released by the
algae floating in the oceans is beginning to collect in the air. These single-celled
plants have been producing oxygen for about two billion years, but up until now the oxygen
has been combining chemically with iron and other elements to form great mineral deposits
around the world. Paradoxically, this oxygen, which we must have to live, is poisonous to
most of the life forms living on the Earth during the Proterozoic, so another great change
in the types of life is about to occur.
The earth at this time is also very cold, with huge, bluish glacial ice
sheets visible across the supercontinent, even in the normally warm equatorial regions!
In fact, glaciers invaded Michigan at this time; this glaciation is referred to as
the Gowganda glaciation.
Now let's focus in on the one craton that affects Michigan: the Canadian Shield.
Michigan began when a shield-shaped mass of igneous rock, nearly two million square
miles in area and centering about Hudsons Bay, formed the original continent of
North America which we refer to as the "Canadian Shield." The point of the
shield extended southward across the area now the western half of the Northern Peninsula
into Wisconsin, and its southern edge was a northward-bearing arc extending from the Lake
Superior region to the Adirondacks. Southward was a shallow sea covering the remainder of
the continental block. The granite floor of the sea had many depressions and ridges, but
only the basin-shaped depression bordering the shield on the southeast need interest us.
The basin shallowed scoop-fashion eastward, but the deepest part was about where the
Southern Peninsula is now. That was the early setting of Michigan, the basal foundation of
The maps below show the extent of the Canadian Shield. To its east lies
its unstable edge, where folding of the rocks would later cause the Appalachians to form.
To its west and south, more stable parts of the continents existed, where only subtle
down-warping and up-warping occurred. One of these "downwarped" areas would
later become the Michigan basin, in which many thousands of meters of sediments
accumulated and later became rock.
During the first part of the Proterozoic, a 200 million year-period of quiet, which we
name the Huronian from its record north of Lake Huron, thick sediments were laid
down in a shallow sea trough that covered the Lake Superior region. In places thick sand
was deposited; in other fine muds, and in other places pure lime, accumulated in the
shallow but slowly deepening sea. Over the sand great masses of iron minerals accumulated,
either by chemical action or by the work of iron forming bacteria, or by both and perhaps
other means, until vast thicknesses of sand and iron sediments were built up, and the
worlds largest iron deposit was in the making in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan;
and in that far ago time the foundations of Michigans wealth and the automobile
industry were laid in the old Huronian sediments we now find in the iron ranges of
Marquette, Baraga, Iron, Dickinson, Menominee, and Gogebic counties.
Photograph by Randy Schaetzl, Professor of Geography - Michigan State University
The map below shows in detail where the important boundary is between the Precambrian
rocks (PC: of the Canadian Shield) and the Paleozoic-age sedimentary rocks of the Michigan
Basin and surrounding areas (C: for Cambrian).
As soon as water fell on the Canadian Shield and the first winds blew, rock weathering
began. The rocks started to flake off and break up, and erosion was initiated. Sediments
were carried to and deposited in the seas, and the first sandy beaches were formed.
Several times in these early turbulent eons the land at the edges of the seas were lifted
into high mountain ranges, like the Penokeean Range, only to be worn down and
their sediments carried to the seas to build up new shores and to be spread on the sea
floor to form stratified masses of sandstones, shales, and limestones. Each newly formed
beach increased the land area and advanced the land-water boundary southward. With each
successive uplift the sedimentary rocks were bent, folded, broken, twisted, contorted, and
changed. Masses of hot igneous rock were forced into the broken formations, completely
changing or metamorphosing them in many places so that the rocks made in the several
periods of mountain building and sedimentation became a very complex mass of disturbed,
broken (faulted), distorted rock --- the oldest rocks that underlie the western half of
the Northern Peninsula. All we can see of the oldest rocks are the Huron Mountains and the
other granites and their kindred of Marquette, Baraga, and Gogebic counties. Once they
were a mountainous seacoast, but their summits were worn in turn and all but the highest
buried under later sediments.
Rumblings of a new geologic disturbance, mountain building, interrupted the quiet Huronian
sedimentation of the Early Proterozoic, 2.5 - 1.6 billion years ago. Again mountain
building, termed the Penokean Orogeny (1.8 billion years ago) lifted the sediments, now
hardened to rocks, to mountain heights, and in so doing crumbled, folded, and contorted
them. The sandstones were metamorphosed to quartzite, shales to slate, limestones to green
and white marbles, and the iron sediments were folded and changed with them. The rocks
were cracked and broken; they slipped and moved along faults, vertically and horizontally.
Some rock blocks were shoved up onto others, some were tipped on end until a madly jumbled
mass was made of the flat Huronian sediments. The red and black jaspillite of Jasper Knob
near Ishpeming shows what happened. Into cracks in the rock warm and hot waters, heavily
mineral-laden, made their way. These waters left deposits of minerals that are the joy of
the collector, although the complex Huronian rocks in which they are found have been the
lure, despair, and subject of great dispute among geologists for the last hundred years.
The pink pegmatite dike in the glistening white marble of Felch Quarry tells a tale of
long sedimentation of pure lime metamorphosed to marble, perhaps by the very molten rock
that cracked and forced its way through the marble, then slowly cooled, forming large
crystals of pegmatite.
Parts of the text above have been paraphrased from C.M. Davis Readings in the Geography of Michigan (1964).
This material has been compiled for educational use only, and
may not be reproduced without permission. One copy may be printed for personal
use. Please contact Randall Schaetzl (email@example.com)
for more information or permissions. | <urn:uuid:689128f9-1db1-406b-a7a1-c3ec2c7362d6> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://geo.msu.edu/extra/geogmich/Precambrian.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463607731.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20170524020456-20170524040456-00431.warc.gz | en | 0.957415 | 3,847 | 4.1875 | 4 |
If you have been assigned to write a research proposal by the teacher, it is important that you do it the right way because this is the only thing that will help you seek approval from the teacher and move forward to write your paper. However, this cannot be done just like that and you will have to make some efforts and study the relevant information in this regard to do a good job on your proposal.
Writing a research proposal is a key part of the academic process when it comes to working on a research paper as without the proper proposal to help readers understand what it is all about, you will not be able to make the readers understand its significance and relate to what you have done. The better you study and the more you work out these details, the better proposal you will be able to present to the teacher.
It is necessary that you work out the significance of study to write a perfect proposal and see how it can help you make your paper much better. This article is a guide for students as it helps them understand how significant study is frigid possible and how interval add more to it.
It will make the proposal more informative
You must understand that your findings and study will make the proposal more informative. As the proposal is on some academic topic and subject, you will not have much information to write it unless you conduct study and find out some recent research of acts relating to it. It is necessary that you conduct study to make your proposal more informative for the readers.
It will make the proposal more academic
It is only with study that you can make your proposal more academic and impress the teachers. As you are writing it as a prelude to your research paper, you need to know that it must sound academic with the right words and phrases to add more weight to it so that it becomes an academic document that is appreciated by the teachers.
It will help you express your thoughts in a better way
When you conduct study and learn more about the proposal, you will be able to express your thoughts in a much better way as you will have good command over what you are saying. As the research proposal is meant to highlight some research, it is important that it is written in clear and explicit terms that define what it is all about and only detailed study will enable you to do this.
It will help to avoid repetition and low quality work
When you write the research proposal with relevant study, you will be able to avoid repetition of words and write a standard piece instead of coming up with low quality work that fails to impress the teacher. When you have some key material to use in the text, you will be able to produce top quality and custom content that is approved by the teacher. | <urn:uuid:65f8ced0-c85f-4586-b482-83f41c2117c1> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | http://www.teamacademicwriters.com/what-is-the-significance-of-study-in-research-proposal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267860041.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20180618031628-20180618051628-00453.warc.gz | en | 0.969444 | 545 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The Adventures of Young Ramses
Young Ramses is the story of a courageous and trustworthy boy who lived long ago in ancient Egypt. Ramses' father, the mighty Pharoah, must decide who will replace him and become the next ruler. Will it be Ramses or his older brother? The new leader must be quick on his feet, clever, brave and true. Ramses must prove himself to be a leader worthy of being Pharoah. | <urn:uuid:63b6488b-c584-4e69-b337-fb7c6c82f86b> | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | http://historyandmovies.com/adventures-young-ramses | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440644062782.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827025422-00133-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960436 | 92 | 2.6875 | 3 |
- How do I enable swap files in Windows 10?
- Does Windows 10 use swap?
- Where is the swap file in Windows 10?
- Does increasing virtual memory speed up computer?
- Does 8gb RAM need swap space?
- Why is swap being used even though I have plenty of free RAM?
- What is the optimal virtual memory size for 4gb RAM?
- What is the use of swap file?
- Does Windows have swap space?
- Is Virtual Memory bad for SSD?
- What is a swap file in Windows?
- Why swap file is created in Linux?
- Do I need a swap file?
- What is the best paging file size for Windows 10?
- Does page file size affect performance?
- What happens when swap memory is full?
- How much virtual memory should I get for 16gb of RAM?
- Is swap necessary for Linux?
How do I enable swap files in Windows 10?
Click the Change button from under the Virtual memory section.On the Virtual Memory box, uncheck the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives checkbox.From the available list, click to select the drive on which Windows 10 is installed.
From below the list, click to select the Custom size radio button.More items…•.
Does Windows 10 use swap?
sys, Swapfile. sys is a Windows 10 feature that takes advantage of space on your hard drive when your RAM either fills up or can be used in a more efficient way. You might be asking: Why do I need a swap file when I already have a page file?
Where is the swap file in Windows 10?
Windows 10 (and 8) include a new virtual memory file named swapfile. sys. It’s stored in your system drive, along with the pagefile. sys and hiberfil.
Does increasing virtual memory speed up computer?
Virtual RAM is one of the great Windows hidden features & is also called as swap file handling memory which uses the user defined part of the hard disk to improve the RAM performance and so it speed up the computer. Virtual memory allows you to run more programs smoothly.
Does 8gb RAM need swap space?
You should be fine with just 2 or 4 Gb of swap size, or none at all (since you don’t plan hibernating). An often-quoted rule of thumb says that the swap partition should be twice the size of the RAM.
Why is swap being used even though I have plenty of free RAM?
Swapping is only associated with times where your system is performing poorly because it happens at times when you are running out of usable RAM, which would slow your system down (or make it unstable) even if you didn’t have swap.
What is the optimal virtual memory size for 4gb RAM?
Windows sets the initial virtual memory paging file equal to the amount of installed RAM. The paging file is a minimum of 1.5 times and a maximum of three times your physical RAM. For example, a system with 4GB RAM would have a minimum of 1024x4x1. 5=6,144MB [1GB RAM x Installed RAM x Minimum].
What is the use of swap file?
A swap file allows an operating system to use hard disk space to simulate extra memory. When the system runs low on memory, it swaps a section of RAM that an idle program is using onto the hard disk to free up memory for other programs.
Does Windows have swap space?
Windows uses disk space for swap, but it uses a file in the NTFS file system instead of dedicated space. Unix can use swap files too, but it’s usually better to use a dedicated partition since a swap file can become fragmented unless it’s allocated all at once.
Is Virtual Memory bad for SSD?
SSD as virtual memory (swap/paging file) my be the best solution for those computers who don’t allow memory upgrades. … As far as limited writes go, it is no worse than systems that have the operating system on an ssd .
What is a swap file in Windows?
A swap file, also called a page file, is an area on the hard drive used for temporary storage of information. Windows uses the swap file to improve performance. … Note: Microsoft recommends that you allow Windows to manage the Virtual Memory settings for you (i.e., leave the default setting as is).
Why swap file is created in Linux?
A swap file allows Linux to simulate the disk space as RAM. When your system starts running out of RAM, it uses the swap space to and swaps some content of the RAM on to the disk space. This frees up the RAM to serve more important processes. When the RAM is free again, it swaps back the data from the disk.
Do I need a swap file?
You actually don’t have to have swap partition, but it is recommended in case you do use up that much memory in normal operation.
What is the best paging file size for Windows 10?
Ideally, your paging file size should be 1.5 times your physical memory at a minimum and up to 4 times the physical memory at most to ensure system stability.
Does page file size affect performance?
Increasing page file size may help prevent instabilities and crashing in Windows. However, a hard drive read/write times are much slower than what they would be if the data were in your computer memory. Having a larger page file is going to add extra work for your hard drive, causing everything else to run slower.
What happens when swap memory is full?
Yes that is what happens when you run out of memory/swap. … It is a configuration somewhere in the system, but once out of memory there it is unsafe for your filesystem to keep running. So the most sane thing is to halt the system, trying not to corrupt any (more) data.
How much virtual memory should I get for 16gb of RAM?
Microsoft recommends that you set virtual memory to be no less than 1.5 times and no more than 3 times the amount of RAM on your computer.
Is swap necessary for Linux?
The short answer is, No. There are performance benefits when swap space is enabled, even when you have more than enough ram. Update, also see Part 2: Linux Performance: Almost Always Add Swap (ZRAM). …so in this case, as in many, swap usage is not hurting Linux server performance. | <urn:uuid:9ad6fdf7-6d8a-4103-ad1d-13a8fcc67cfb> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://hcondes.com/qa/quick-answer-does-windows-10-use-a-swap-file.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243991904.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20210511060441-20210511090441-00009.warc.gz | en | 0.893902 | 1,357 | 2.625 | 3 |
Maps don't typically convey time very well. They're static snapshots of a moment in history. They tell you what exists, not when people go there, or how the value of a place might be tied to time – whether it's a nightlife district or a public park most popular with early-morning joggers.
We've come across a handful of animated maps that do a good job combining time and space, frequently using either transit data or geo-tagged social-media hits. Now a new project, called Geographies of Time, is trying to do something similar with a more typical two-dimensional map. The effort is part of a broader EU-funded project called UrbanSensing that's building platforms to detect patterns in how people use urban spaces.
With Geographies of Time, the researchers wanted to erase how we typically think of boundaries within cities – between neighborhoods, for instance – and replace them with new ones dictated by time. Which parts of a city come alive between midnight and 3 a.m.? How about at lunch time? And what might those patterns tell us about how individual places – and whole cities – are experienced differently over the course of a day?
Giorgia Lupi, the Ph.D. researcher at Milan Politecnico behind the project, began with Milan. Using tens of thousands of geo-tagged tweets, she and colleagues divided the map of the city into a fine-grained grid. The tweets were then divided into eight three-hour time intervals (from midnight to 3 a.m., 3 a.m. to 6 a.m., etc.). And the boxes in the grid were digitally colored based on the time window when Twitter was locally most active. Here, for instance, is a representation of a weekday in Milan, with the key at right:
And a weekend:
For comparison, Lupi and her information design agency Accurat prepared another set of maps from New York City for us, using one month of geolocated tweets from the city in July of this year (covering about 3 million tweets total). On this map, the individual squares are miniscule, about 250 by 350 feet. But to reduce anomalies in the map, squares are colored based on the tweet activity in the eight squares surrounding them as well. As with Milan, there are eight three-hour units of time over the course of the day.
This is New York on a weekday:
And a weekend:
Zooming in, you can see heavy mid-day activity around lunchtime in the Financial District on week days:
On a weekend, there are a lot of night-time revelers near Times Square:
And the area around Yankees Stadium lit up around 6-9 p.m. on weekdays, adjacent to Macombs Dam Park:
The result looks a lot like Tetris. But it's certainly effective in re-scrambling how we think about the divisions within cities when we look at a map. | <urn:uuid:29ebc9bc-a19e-4444-9bbe-997cac77a48c> | CC-MAIN-2014-41 | http://www.citylab.com/tech/2013/10/mapping-time-boundaries-city/7221/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1410657120057.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20140914011200-00247-ip-10-196-40-205.us-west-1.compute.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955217 | 608 | 2.890625 | 3 |
- Understanding the Histogram
- Achieving Optimal Contrast
- Preventing Blown-Out Highlights and Plugged-Up Shadows
- Avoiding Posterization
Understanding the Histogram
Used properly, the histogram that's displayed behind the curve in Photoshop's Curves dialog can help you to make sure that your adjustments don't get out of control and end up harming your images instead of improving them. The Histogram panel (see Figure 1) also can help you to ensure that you don't push your edits and adjustments too far. To display the Histogram panel, choose Window > Histogram.
Figure 1 The Histogram panel.
A histogram is a simple bar graph that shows the range of brightness levels that make up an image and the prevalence of each of these shades. When you look at the histogram, imagine that a gradient is stretched across the bottom of the bar graph, with black on the left and white on the right (see Figure 2). If the histogram shows a bar above a particular shade of gray, that shade is used somewhere in the image. If there's no bar, that brightness level isn't used in that image. The height of the bar indicates how prevalent a particular brightness level is, compared to the others that make up the image.
Figure 2 Imagine a gradient at the bottom of the Histogram panel.
The Histogram panel includes a bonus. When you start to adjust an image, the Histogram panel overlays a histogram that represents the current, adjusted state of the image (black) above the original histogram that shows what the image looked like before you started adjusting it (gray), as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 The gray histogram reflects the unadjusted image; the black version reflects the adjusted image. | <urn:uuid:694d2410-96c1-4b56-b643-b1aac6ec7569> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1349303&seqNum=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886116921.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20170822221214-20170823001214-00460.warc.gz | en | 0.848553 | 363 | 3.09375 | 3 |
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